Wilco’s latest sound hits road
Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007
Wilco fans are liberated from expectations. Unlike some bands, Wilco has no hits, but the group does have a sizeable contingency who appreciate its intelligent, evershifting sound.
Known as Jeff Tweedy’s group, Wilco has in recent years taken on a strong identity as more than just an outlet for Tweedy’s songs and sometimes odd, ethereal topics.
Those who have followed Tweedy since his days as a member of Uncle Tupelo have sometimes contrasted his output in Wilco with that of his former friend and Uncle Tupelo bandmate, Jay Farrar, who has led his own band, Son Volt, on a musical road of its own. Both men have kept to their Midwestern roots, with Tweedy now based in Chicago and Farrar moving to St. Louis, not far from Uncle Tupelo’s beginnings in Belleville, Ill.
From its early days as a standard bearer of the alt-country, Americana sound, Wilco has become increasingly hard to pin down, which is the goal of many a musician, as they duck and dodge anyone’s attempt to put labels on them.
Wilco has had shifts in its lineup, as Tweedy has battled addiction, record companies and former band members while maintaining a fan base that has stuck with him as the creative and restless Tweedy has released CDs, DVDs and a book.
Tweedy only has one band member who has been with him since the start: bassist John Stirratt. The other members of the present lineup are percussionist Glenn Kotche, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone and guitarist and lap steel player Nels Cline.
The sextet has been together since 2004, when Wilco released A ghost is born, winner of two Grammy Awards. The band followed that with Kicking Television: Live in Chicago before releasing Sky Blue Sky on May 15.
Cline, who cut his musical teeth in jazz bands, has helped shape the recent sound of Wilco. He has teamed up with Tweedy on stage in intricate guitar interplay and improvisation that have reminded some of the glory days of The Allman Brothers with Duane Allman and Dickey Betts.
Cline shrugs off any worries about losing his jazz “credibility” by joining a rock band.
“If anything, it’s the opposite now,” he reports from the road near Madison, Wis. “Things have been moving along nicely for me in a parallel kind of way, with a lot of things also happening in my jazz life. A lot of those folks have no knowledge of Wilco. But I’ve traveled parallel paths most of my life.” Cline recently was up for an award from an association of jazz journalists for his New Monastery record, but lost to Ornette Coleman.
“I was honored to be on the same ballot with someone like him, obviously,” Cline says. “Since that album came out, I have a newer one, Draw Breath, that I did with my band, The Nels Cline Singers.” The Cline / Tweedy sound is most clearly apparent on Sky Blue Sky’s dramatic cut, “Impossible Germany,” where the two guitarists’ melodic and harmonic interplay puts the song alongside the famed Derek & the Dominos’ “Layla” for its beauty.
“What happened there was as we worked that up, I asked Jeff what should I do at one part,” Cline recalls, “and he said, ‘Why not play a solo ?’ So after we created the idea, we did that, then Pat started playing a guitar all of a sudden, and that harmony part, a fragment of something I had come up with, I tried to fit in as things progressed. And it was a song that Jeff had had around for a while.
“ It’s a song with a poignant, haunting feeling to it. I really like the way the three guitars sound on it.” Cline calls himself the “old man of Wilco.” Born in 1956 in Los Angeles, he has been in a variety of bands, duos and trios, with most of his time devoted to the world of avant-garde jazz. He has played with Charlie Haden, but he also has worked with some of the rock world’s more experimental players, including Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and Mike Watt. He has also been a member of The Geraldine Fibbers, which is how he came to the attention of Tweedy.
Cline carries eight guitars on the road, but Tweedy has a different one for each song, Cline laughs.
“I mostly switch between four of mine, and play a couple of my lap steels,” he adds. “I’m self-contained and have my own world up there.” Wilco works as a democracy, he says, with Tweedy deciding what eventually goes on the records.
“It’s nice to have a leader,” Cline says, “and the lion’s share of the ideas come from Jeff, but as far as how we grapple with shaping the songs, it’s been a really harmonious group effort. What’s been fun is how relaxed and humane it is. He can chime in as we just keep playing until we get something we like, and when he says that’s done, it’s done.” This week’s Wilco show will be its first in central Arkansas, although the band did a sold-out show at Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville on May 18, 2006. Another nearby soldout show was at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis on Feb. 12, 2005.
Opening act Dr. Dog performed at Juanita’s on March 7. The Philadelphia-based group, which released its latest CD, We All Belong, earlier this year, will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game Sept. 27. Dr. Dog has worked with or opened shows for Beck, My Morning Jacket, The Strokes, The Cold War Kids and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
Wilco Opening act: Dr. Dog 8 p.m. Tuesday, Robinson Center Music Hall, Broadway and West Markham Street, Little Rock Tickets: $ 30 (501 ) 975-7575 or www. ticketmaster. com or all Ticketmaster outlets
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