Wilco's Jeff Tweedy At Calgary Folk Festival
Posted: July 21, 2005 8:10 pm
The Calgary Herald (Alberta)
Solitary Tweedy: Wilco singer goes it alone for folk fest performance
BY Heath McCoy, Calgary Herald
Jeff Tweedy performs tonight at Prince's Island Park as part of the
Calgary Folk Music Festival.
- - -
He made his name as the frontman of Wilco -- hailed by many critics
as the greatest American rock band of modern times -- but when Jeff
Tweedy comes to the Calgary Folk Music Festival today, he'll be
accompanied only by his acoustic guitar.
"It's me and my lonesome," he says in a phone interview in advance of
his festival appearance at Prince's Island Park. "I've been doing
solo acoustic shows for about 10 years now, every once in awhile,
whenever Wilco's not on the road. It just keeps me connected to what
it feels like to be up (onstage) naked, all by yourself, having to
make a song work."
His material? "Basically any song I've ever written and any song I
know," he says.
One gets the impression Tweedy, 37, has little idea what he's going
to play for his festival appearance, and that he won't know until the
second he steps on stage. Instead, he'll go wherever he's inspired to
go at that particular moment.
That's also the way he approaches recording.
Wilco is due in the studio next month to begin recording its sixth
album. At this point, Tweedy has no idea what the new record will
sound like. "We'll start fishing around (when we get into the
studio)," he says.
"I don't think we really know (where we're going). That's kind of the
fun of it, just getting into the studio and using it as a place to
get together. To be a kid, play around and make it all up. Hopefully
something cool will happen.
"I guess we have the luxury of not putting anything out until
something cool happens."
It's almost hard to believe Tweedy is really so casual about his
artistic approach. This is a man, after all, whose songwriting
abilities are often hailed as genius.
At the very least, Tweedy's startlingly restless, ambitious, and,
above all, bold.
Stepping into the spotlight in the early '90s, as part of the
Belleville, Ill., band Uncle Tupelo, Tweedy helped launch the modern
alt-country craze, pouring classic country and folk traditions
through a punk rock filter.
When Tupelo broke up in 1994, Tweedy formed Wilco. Initially, Wilco
went down a similar twang-rock road, but from its second album,
1996's Being There, Tweedy began paving new ground, delving into
soul, blues and grand, orchestral pop.
With the release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in 2002, Wilco was being
called the Radiohead of the Americana set. While Tweedy's country-
folk roots were still evident in places, the album was an art-rock
pastiche; a dreamy, surreal blend of influences and sounds. The 2004
followup, A Ghost Is Born, took such experiments even further, making
the record positively obtuse in places, but highly rewarding in
others.
"For me, the whole point of being in a band and making music is to
explore and find things that are exciting," Tweedy says.
Because he first emerged as an alt-country pioneer, Tweedy faced some
criticism at first, for daring to move away from the genre. "(Alt-
country) is not something I really think of," he says. "I understand
why people need labels and narrow categories. There's a lot of music
out there and (labels) make it easier for people to go into a record
store and not lose their minds. . . .
"But to me, alt-country is a marketing term. I don't know what it
means. It has nothing to do with music. I guess it's supposed to be
country music with rock elements. But if that's the case, was (The
Beatles') Let It Be an alt-country record? Was (the Rolling Stones')
Let It Bleed? Country music has been a part of rock music for a long
time."
Besides his knack for making critically acclaimed records, Tweedy has
also garnered a ton of unwanted press in recent years for his
personal problems. He battled with his former record company,
Reprise, which deemed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot too uncommercial to
release. He battled with his bandmates in Wilco, including key member
Jay Bennett who wound up leaving the group. He also battled with his
own personal demons. The release of A Ghost Is Born was postponed
while Tweedy did a stint in rehab for an addiction to painkillers, an
addiction he developed medicating himself for chronic migraine
headaches and panic attacks that made him vomit almost everyday.
As he prepares for the next Wilco record, are things running more
smoothly.
"The only thing I can say is you live life . . . and I don't know
many people that don't have some event that happens to them in a two-
year span," Tweedy says. "And that's about the time it takes to make
a record. Within two years you might lose your job, get a new friend,
lose a friend. It's just that, me being in the public eye, people
tend to write about it. But I tend to discredit the idea that making
a record has anything to do (with hardships). I think it has more to
do with life."
Tweedy says he hasn't had a migraine in more than a year. When he was
in treatment for his addiction to painkillers he was also working
through a panic disorder and a problem with depression that was a
biological condition dating back to his childhood. "Now that I've got
the panic disorder under control, I don't get migraines," he says.
Instead, he's throwing himself into his work, including one of his
many side projects, the band Loose Fur, which he formed with his
Wilco bandmate, drummer Glenn Kotche and Sonic Youth's Jim O'Rourke.
Expect another record from that trio in the near future.
"Other than that, I'm just staying being a dad," says the married
father of two boys.
And, for the first time in a long time, Tweedy can add: "I feel
great."[/b]
Solitary Tweedy: Wilco singer goes it alone for folk fest performance
BY Heath McCoy, Calgary Herald
Jeff Tweedy performs tonight at Prince's Island Park as part of the
Calgary Folk Music Festival.
- - -
He made his name as the frontman of Wilco -- hailed by many critics
as the greatest American rock band of modern times -- but when Jeff
Tweedy comes to the Calgary Folk Music Festival today, he'll be
accompanied only by his acoustic guitar.
"It's me and my lonesome," he says in a phone interview in advance of
his festival appearance at Prince's Island Park. "I've been doing
solo acoustic shows for about 10 years now, every once in awhile,
whenever Wilco's not on the road. It just keeps me connected to what
it feels like to be up (onstage) naked, all by yourself, having to
make a song work."
His material? "Basically any song I've ever written and any song I
know," he says.
One gets the impression Tweedy, 37, has little idea what he's going
to play for his festival appearance, and that he won't know until the
second he steps on stage. Instead, he'll go wherever he's inspired to
go at that particular moment.
That's also the way he approaches recording.
Wilco is due in the studio next month to begin recording its sixth
album. At this point, Tweedy has no idea what the new record will
sound like. "We'll start fishing around (when we get into the
studio)," he says.
"I don't think we really know (where we're going). That's kind of the
fun of it, just getting into the studio and using it as a place to
get together. To be a kid, play around and make it all up. Hopefully
something cool will happen.
"I guess we have the luxury of not putting anything out until
something cool happens."
It's almost hard to believe Tweedy is really so casual about his
artistic approach. This is a man, after all, whose songwriting
abilities are often hailed as genius.
At the very least, Tweedy's startlingly restless, ambitious, and,
above all, bold.
Stepping into the spotlight in the early '90s, as part of the
Belleville, Ill., band Uncle Tupelo, Tweedy helped launch the modern
alt-country craze, pouring classic country and folk traditions
through a punk rock filter.
When Tupelo broke up in 1994, Tweedy formed Wilco. Initially, Wilco
went down a similar twang-rock road, but from its second album,
1996's Being There, Tweedy began paving new ground, delving into
soul, blues and grand, orchestral pop.
With the release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in 2002, Wilco was being
called the Radiohead of the Americana set. While Tweedy's country-
folk roots were still evident in places, the album was an art-rock
pastiche; a dreamy, surreal blend of influences and sounds. The 2004
followup, A Ghost Is Born, took such experiments even further, making
the record positively obtuse in places, but highly rewarding in
others.
"For me, the whole point of being in a band and making music is to
explore and find things that are exciting," Tweedy says.
Because he first emerged as an alt-country pioneer, Tweedy faced some
criticism at first, for daring to move away from the genre. "(Alt-
country) is not something I really think of," he says. "I understand
why people need labels and narrow categories. There's a lot of music
out there and (labels) make it easier for people to go into a record
store and not lose their minds. . . .
"But to me, alt-country is a marketing term. I don't know what it
means. It has nothing to do with music. I guess it's supposed to be
country music with rock elements. But if that's the case, was (The
Beatles') Let It Be an alt-country record? Was (the Rolling Stones')
Let It Bleed? Country music has been a part of rock music for a long
time."
Besides his knack for making critically acclaimed records, Tweedy has
also garnered a ton of unwanted press in recent years for his
personal problems. He battled with his former record company,
Reprise, which deemed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot too uncommercial to
release. He battled with his bandmates in Wilco, including key member
Jay Bennett who wound up leaving the group. He also battled with his
own personal demons. The release of A Ghost Is Born was postponed
while Tweedy did a stint in rehab for an addiction to painkillers, an
addiction he developed medicating himself for chronic migraine
headaches and panic attacks that made him vomit almost everyday.
As he prepares for the next Wilco record, are things running more
smoothly.
"The only thing I can say is you live life . . . and I don't know
many people that don't have some event that happens to them in a two-
year span," Tweedy says. "And that's about the time it takes to make
a record. Within two years you might lose your job, get a new friend,
lose a friend. It's just that, me being in the public eye, people
tend to write about it. But I tend to discredit the idea that making
a record has anything to do (with hardships). I think it has more to
do with life."
Tweedy says he hasn't had a migraine in more than a year. When he was
in treatment for his addiction to painkillers he was also working
through a panic disorder and a problem with depression that was a
biological condition dating back to his childhood. "Now that I've got
the panic disorder under control, I don't get migraines," he says.
Instead, he's throwing himself into his work, including one of his
many side projects, the band Loose Fur, which he formed with his
Wilco bandmate, drummer Glenn Kotche and Sonic Youth's Jim O'Rourke.
Expect another record from that trio in the near future.
"Other than that, I'm just staying being a dad," says the married
father of two boys.
And, for the first time in a long time, Tweedy can add: "I feel
great."[/b]