Mermaid Avenue
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mermaid Avenue | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Studio album by Billy Bragg and Wilco | |||||
| Released | June 23, 1998 | ||||
| Genre | Folk rock | ||||
| Length | 45:19 | ||||
| Label | Elektra | ||||
| Producer | Billy Bragg, Grant Showbiz, Wilco |
||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
|
|||||
| Billy Bragg chronology | |||||
|
|||||
| Wilco chronology | |||||
|
|||||
Mermaid Avenue is a 1998 album of previously unheard lyrics written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie, put to music written and performed by British singer Billy Bragg and the American band Wilco. The project was organized by Guthrie's daughter, Nora Guthrie. Mermaid Avenue was released on the Elektra Records label on June 23, 1998. A second volume of recordings, Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, followed in 2000. The projects are named after a song "Mermaid's Avenue" written by Guthrie. This was also the street in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York on which Guthrie lived.
During the spring of 1995, Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora had contacted English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg about writing music for a selection of completed Guthrie lyrics. Her father had left behind over a thousand sets of complete lyrics written between 1939 and 1967; none of these lyrics had any music other than a vague stylistic notation.
According to Bob Dylan's autobiographical Chronicles, Woody Guthrie gave his unpublished songs to Dylan but Bob was unable to get them from Guthrie's family (he tells a story about a reluctant babysitter).
Nora Guthrie's liner notes in Mermaid Avenue indicate that it was her intention that the songs be given to a new generation of musicians who would be able to make the songs relevant to a younger generation. Nora Guthrie contacted Bragg, who in turn approached Wilco and asked them to participate in the project as well.
Wilco agreed, and in addition to recording with Bragg in Ireland, they were given their own share of songs to finish.
Rather than recreating tunes in Guthrie's style, Bragg and Wilco created new, contemporary music for the lyrics. What seemed like a risky enterprise surprised everyone; released in 1998 as Mermaid Avenue, the results were met with universal acclaim. The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and went on to place fourth on the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1998 (right behind Bob Dylan's Live 1966).
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
All lyrics written by Woody Guthrie.
- "Walt Whitman's Niece" – 3:53
- "California Stars" – 4:57
- "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key" – 4:06
- "Birds and Ships" – 2:13
- "Hoodoo Voodoo" – 3:12
- "She Came Along to Me" – 3:26
- "At My Window Sad and Lonely" – 3:27
- "Ingrid Bergman" – 1:50
- "Christ for President" – 2:39
- "I Guess I Planted" – 3:32
- "One by One" – 3:22
- "Eisler on the Go" – 2:56
- "Hesitating Beauty" – 3:04
- "Another Man's Done Gone" – 1:34
- "The Unwelcome Guest" – 5:09
[edit] Song details
- "Eisler on the Go" was written by Guthrie as a protest against Hanns Eisler's deportation by the U.S. government during the Cold War.
[edit] Personnel
- Billy Bragg – guitar, vocals
- Jeff Tweedy – guitar, harmonica, vocals
- Jay Bennett – organ, bouzouki, clavinet, piano, drums, background vocals
- Corey Harris – guitar, lap steel guitar
- Ken Coomer – percussion, drums
- Natalie Merchant – vocals
- John Stirratt – piano, bass, background vocals
- Peter Yanowitz – drums
- Bob Egan – slide guitar
- Eliza Carthy – violin
[edit] External links
|
|||||||||||||||||
