Wilco
Wilco performing at the 2004 Austin City Limits festival
Background information
Origin	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Genres	Alternative rock, alternative country, folk rock, experimental rock
Years active	1994 (1994)–present
Labels	dBpm, Nonesuch, Reprise
Associated acts	Uncle Tupelo, Loose Fur, Billy Bragg, The Minus 5, Son Volt, Golden Smog
Website	wilcoworld.net
Members
Jeff Tweedy John Stirratt Nels Cline Glenn Kotche Pat Sansone Mikael Jorgensen
Past members
Leroy Bach Max Johnston Jay Bennett Bob Egan Ken Coomer

Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt remaining from the original incarnation. Since early 2004, the other current members are guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalists Pat Sansone and Mikael Jorgensen, and drummer Glenn Kotche. Wilco has released eight studio albums, a live double album, and three collaborations: two with Billy Bragg, and one with The Minus 5.

Wilco's music has been inspired by a wide variety of artists and styles, including Bill Fay and Television, and has in turn influenced music by a number of modern alternative rock acts. The band continued in the alternative country of Uncle Tupelo on its debut album A.M. (1995), but has since introduced more experimental aspects to their music, including elements of alternative rock and classic pop.

Wilco garnered media attention for its fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), and the controversy surrounding it. After the recording sessions were complete, Reprise Records rejected the album and dismissed Wilco from the label. As part of a buy-out deal, Reprise gave Wilco the rights to the album for free. After streaming Foxtrot on its website, Wilco sold the album to Nonesuch Records in 2002. Both record labels are subsidiaries of Warner Music Group, leading one critic to say the album showed "how screwed up the music business is in the early twenty-first century."^[1] Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is Wilco's most successful release to date, selling over 670,000 copies. Wilco won two Grammy Awards for their fifth studio album, 2004's A Ghost Is Born, including Best Alternative Music Album. Wilco's most recent studio album, The Whole Love, was released on September 27, 2011.

History[link]

Formation[link]

Wilco was formed following the breakup of the influential alternative country music group Uncle Tupelo. Singer Jay Farrar quit the band in 1994 supposedly because of a soured relationship with co-singer Jeff Tweedy.^[2] Both Tweedy and Farrar sought to form bands immediately after the breakup. Tweedy was able to keep the entire Uncle Tupelo lineup sans Farrar, including bassist John Stirratt, drummer Ken Coomer, and multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston. He even enlisted Uncle Tupelo guest guitarist Brian Henneman of the Bottle Rockets, who performed on many of the tracks for Wilco's debut album, A.M..^[3] The band was tempted to keep the Uncle Tupelo name, but ultimately decided to rename the band.^[4] The group named itself "Wilco" after the military and commercial aviation radio voice acronym for "Will Comply",^[5] a choice which Tweedy has called "fairly ironic for a rock band to name themselves."^[6]

[edit] A.M. and Being There

After collaborating with Syd Straw on a cover version of the Ernest Tubb song "The T.B. is Whipping Me" (released in September 1994 on the Red Hot + Country compilation produced by the Red Hot Organization), Wilco began recording tracks for A.M., their first studio album, at Easley studio in June 1994.^[3][5][7] A demo tape from these recordings was sent to executives at Reprise Records, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers, and the label signed Tweedy to a contract. Although Tweedy stated that he wanted a more collaborative project than Uncle Tupelo, only his name appeared on the Reprise contract.^[8] Tweedy requested songwriting submissions from other members, but only one submission—John Stirratt's "It's Just That Simple"—appeared on A.M.. It was the last song Wilco ever released that was lyrically solely written by a member besides Tweedy.^[8]

Stylistically similar to Uncle Tupelo, the music on A.M. was considered to be straightforward alternative country rock in what Tweedy later described as "trying to tread some water with a perceived audience."^[9] A.M. peaked at number twenty-seven on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, considerably lower than the debut album of Jay Farrar's new band, Son Volt.^[10][11] The album was met with modest reviews though it would rank thirty-fourth in the Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop critics poll.^[12][13][14] Critically and commercially paling in comparison to the reception of Son Volt's album, the Wilco members perceived A.M. to be a failure.^[15] Shortly after the release of the album, multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett joined the band, providing the band with a keyboardist and another guitarist.

	"I Must Be High" noicon Sample from "I Must Be High", the first track from A.M.. The song is an example of the straightforward alternative country music described by Tweedy as "trying to tread some water with a perceived audience."
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Wilco made its live debut on November 17, 1994 to a capacity crowd at Cicero's Basement Bar in St. Louis, Missouri (the band was billed for the occasion as "Black Shampoo").^[16]

During the two hundred-date tour supporting A.M., Tweedy began to write songs for a second album. The lyrical theme of the songs reflected a relationship between musical artist and a listener; Tweedy chose this topic because he sought to eschew the alternative country fan base. Ken Coomer elaborated:^[17]

The whole No Depression thing was funny to us because people seemed to forget that Jeff was a bigger punk-rock fan than a country fan. It led to things like us all switching instruments on "Misunderstood," where I'm playing guitar.

A number of songs were recorded with this theme, including "Sunken Treasure" and "Hotel Arizona",^[18] however, Wilco also recorded a number of songs in the style of A.M.^[19] Wilco named the album Being There after a Peter Sellers film of the same name. The band went through some personnel changes during the recording sessions. Max Johnston left the band because he felt that his role in the band had diminished in favor of Bennett; he had also been replaced by violinist Jesse Greene on one track because the band felt that Johnston was unable to play the part. Bob Egan of Freakwater briefly joined the band in the studio, playing pedal steel guitar on "Far, Far Away" and "Dreamer in My Dreams", and then became an official member in September 1996.^[20][21]

Unlike the A.M. recording sessions, the band had no vocation for producing a hit song from their second effort.^[22] The recording sessions produced nineteen songs, too many for a single album release. Tweedy was concerned about the high retail price that a double album would be sold for (at least $30), so he asked Reprise Records to release it as a double album at a single album price ($17.98 or less). Reprise agreed to this on the terms that they received Wilco's share of the album royalties. It was estimated in 2003 that the band lost almost $600,000 on the deal, but Tweedy was satisfied.^[23] Being There was well-received by critics from several major media outlets, including Rolling Stone.^[19][24][25] The album reached #73 on the Billboard album charts,^[26] a significant improvement from A.M., and placed fourteenth on the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1996.^[27]

[edit] Summerteeth and the Mermaid Avenue sessions

In November 1997, Wilco entered Willie Nelson's recording studio in Spicewood, Texas to record a third studio album.^[28] The album was lyrically inspired by the marital problems of Tweedy and his wife, as well as by twentieth-century literature.^[29] Tweedy relied heavily on Bennett to provide music for the singer's "bold, but depressing" lyrics.^[30] Wilco recorded several songs, including "Via Chicago" and "She's a Jar," but began working on another project before assembling the tracks into an album.^[28]

The two Mermaid Avenue albums consisted of recordings of unreleased Woody Guthrie (pictured) songs.

Nora Guthrie contacted singer-songwriter Billy Bragg in spring 1995 about recording some unreleased songs by her father, folk singer Woody Guthrie. Most of the songs were written late in Guthrie's life when he was unable to record due to the motor impairments of Huntington's disease. By the 1990s, Woody Guthrie had become a "relic" to the MTV generation, and Nora sought to establish a different legacy for the musician. To Nora, Bragg was "the only singer I knew taking on the same issues as Woody." Bragg was concerned, however, that his fans would not realize that the songs were written by Guthrie when he performed them on tour, so he decided to record the album with another band.^[31]

Bragg contacted Tweedy and Bennett about co-recording the album while Wilco was on the European segment of their Being There tour. Bragg was particularly fond of Being There because their influences extended farther back than the 1950s. Although Tweedy was indifferent to the offer, Bennett was enthused about recording songs of one of his idols—Bennett's previous band Titanic Love Affair was named after a Billy Bragg lyric. A recording contract between Bragg and Wilco was signed after a show at Shepherd's Bush Empire. Bragg mostly recorded the politically charged lyrics, while Tweedy preferred to record lyrics that showcased Guthrie as a "freak weirdo". The recording of Mermaid Avenue began on December 12, 1997, and was the topic of BBC's Man in the Sand documentary film.^[32]

Tempers flared between Bragg and Wilco after the album was completed. Bennett believed that Bragg was overproducing his songs, a sharp contrast to Wilco's sparser contributions. Bennett called Bragg about the possibility of remixing Bragg's songs, to which Bragg responded "you make your record, and I'll make mine, fucker." Eventually Bragg sent copies of his recordings to Chicago for Bennett to remix, but Bragg refused to use the new mixes on the album. The two parties were unable to establish a promotional tour and quarreled over royalties and guest musician fees.

Despite these conflicts, the album was released on June 23, 1998, and sold over 277,000 copies.^[33] The album received rave reviews from Robert Christgau and Rolling Stone, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.^[34][35] It also placed fourth on the Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1998.^[36] After the album was released, Bob Egan was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach.^[37]

After the completion of the Mermaid Avenue sessions, Wilco returned to Spicewood to complete their third studio album, Summerteeth. Unlike previous Wilco and Uncle Tupelo recordings, the album featured a lot of overdubbing with Pro Tools.^[38] Stirratt and Coomer were concerned with the production, since it reduced their involvement in the music. According to Stirratt:^[39]

The story of Summerteeth is Jay bought a Mellotron and he was going to use it, no matter what. It was lovely, but it was overdone. Once they got going on the overdubs, they didn't stop. And nobody in the band stepped up to stop the madness ... It reminds me of Heart of Darkness, where you knowingly extend the creative process for the purpose of exploration or redemption, or whatever it is you're looking for.

During 1999, Warner Brothers was looking to help repay a $16 billion debt acquired during the recent merger of parent company Warner Communications with Time Inc..^[40] As a result, Warner's imprints were under pressure to produce musical acts that would yield hit records. The head of Reprise, Howie Klein, who had previously authorized the release of Being There as a double album, was willing to let Wilco produce Summerteeth without label input. When Klein played the album for Reprise's A&R department, however, they demanded a radio single for the album. Wilco agreed to do this "once and once only" and recorded a radio-friendly version of "Can't Stand It" at the request of David Kahne, the head of the A&R department.^[41] The single version of "Can't Stand It" failed to cross over from Triple-A radio to alternative rock stations. Consequently, the album sold only 200,000 copies, significantly less than Being There.^[42] This was despite critical acclaim; the album placed eighth on the Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1999.^[43]

After the release of Summerteeth, the band resumed the Mermaid Avenue sessions. Although they had recorded enough material for a second release in 1998, Wilco recorded a few new songs for Mermaid Avenue Vol. II. "Someday Some Morning Sometime," featuring a vibraphone filtered through a space echo, was identified by Tweedy as being the "piece to the puzzle" towards the creation of their fourth studio album. The album was released on May 30, 2000, and was the last release from the sessions.^[44]

[edit] Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

	"I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" noicon The first track from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, this song featured an intro on bells composed by Glenn Kotche.
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Shortly after the recording sessions for Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, Wilco purchased a studio on Irving Park Road in Chicago, which they named the Wilco Loft.^[45] The band recorded some tracks in the studio in early 2000 for a fourth studio album. In May 2000, Jeff Tweedy requested to perform with Jim O'Rourke at a festival in Chicago; Tweedy was a fan of O'Rourke's Bad Timing. O'Rourke introduced Tweedy to drummer Glenn Kotche, and the trio enjoyed working together so much that they decided to record an album as a side project named Loose Fur.^[46] Wilco had recorded an entire album of music at this point, but Tweedy was unhappy with the drum parts. He enjoyed Kotche's contributions to Loose Fur so much that Tweedy brought him into the studio to re-record some demos. Some believe that Tweedy sought to make Wilco sound like Loose Fur after officially replacing Ken Coomer with Kotche in January 2001.^[47]

Although Bennett sought to act as both mixer and engineer for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Tweedy was unsure of Bennett's abilities against those of O'Rourke. Tweedy and Bennett frequently argued over whether the album should be accessible to a general listener, or attempt to cover new musical ground.^[48] Unbeknownst to Bennett, Tweedy invited O'Rourke to remix "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart", and the results impressed the other band members—even Bennett. Tensions grew between Bennett and O'Rourke because Bennett wanted to mix every song on the album. O'Rourke cut the contributions of other members on several of the songs; some songs, such as "Poor Places", only featured the Loose Fur trio.^[49] The album was completed in 2001, and Bennett was dismissed from the band immediately afterwards.^[50] The recording of the album was documented by Sam Jones and released in 2002 as the film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco.

Time Warner, which owned Warner Bros. Records, merged with America Online in 2001, leading to more pressure on Warner's record labels to cut costs. Over 600 employees of Warner Music Group were fired, including Howie Klein, the president of Reprise Records. In absence of Klein, David Kahne became the interim head of Reprise.^[51] Kahne assigned Mio Vukovic to monitor the progress of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and to offer suggestions. Music journalist Greg Kot claims that Vukovic disdained the album and was unhappy that Wilco ignored his suggestions.^[52] He brought the album to Kahne, who felt that there was no single on the album. In June 2001, the album was rejected by Reprise and Wilco was asked to leave the label.^[53]

Wilco managed to negotiate terms to a buy-out from Reprise. Music journalist Greg Kot claims that instead of financial compensation, the band agreed to leave the label with the master tapes of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.^[54] The label was already receiving bad publicity for its treatment of the band and were willing to accommodate Wilco's request.^[55] However, Allmusic claims that Wilco "bought the finished studio tapes from Warner/Reprise for a reported $50,000 and left the label altogether" after Wilco was "[u]nwilling to change the album to make it more 'commercially viable'"^[56] To curb the negative publicity, Reprise began to invest more in bands such as The Flaming Lips. Lead singer Wayne Coyne once remarked:^[57]

We are benefiting from the label's regret over Wilco. We are living in the golden age of that being such a public mistake. The people on Warners said, "we'll never have a band like Wilco feel we don't believe in them again." They'd tell me that it would never happen to us. And what a great day for me!

As the band searched for a new label to release the album, they decided to stream it at their official website to discourage illegal trading of low-quality MP3s.^[58] The band signed with Nonesuch Records, another Time Warner subsidiary, and the album was released in the spring of 2002. When it was released, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot reached number thirteen on the Billboard 200, Wilco's highest chart position to that date.^[59] Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sold over 590,000 copies, and to date remains Wilco's best selling album.^[60] Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was met with wide critical acclaim: it topped 2002's Pazz & Jop critics' poll, was named one of the 100 greatest albums of all time by Q Magazine.^[61][62][63]

[edit] Down with Wilco, A Ghost Is Born, and Kicking Television: Live in Chicago

While waiting for the commercial release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco agreed to support R.E.M. collaborator Scott McCaughey for an album release by The Minus 5. They scheduled a recording session for September 11, 2001, but were distraught about the 9/11 terrorist attacks that day.^[64] Later that day, Wilco and McCaughey agreed to "create something good in the world right now" and record some material.^[65] Influenced by Bill Fay's Time of the Last Persecution, The Minus 5's Down with Wilco was released in 2003.^[66] Keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, who had engineered Down with Wilco, joined Wilco in 2002 as they toured in support of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Wilco at the Wired Rave Awards in 2003

In November 2003, Wilco traveled to New York City to record their fifth album. The album was produced by Jim O'Rourke, who mixed Foxtrot and was a member of Wilco side project Loose Fur. Unlike Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost Is Born featured songs that were created with Pro Tools before ever performing them live.^[67] The album featured the song "Less Than You Think", which included a fifteen-minute track of electronic noises and synthesizers, which Tweedy called "the track that everyone will hate". Tweedy justified the inclusion of the song:^[67]

I know ninety-nine percent of our fans won't like that song, they'll say it's a ridiculous indulgence. Even I don't want to listen to it every time I play through the album. But the times I do calm myself down and pay attention to it, I think it's valuable and moving and cathartic. I wouldn't have put it on the record if I didn't think it was great ... I wanted to make an album about identity, and within that is the idea of a higher power, the idea of randomness, and that anything can happen, and that we can't control it.

Leroy Bach left the band immediately after the album's completion to join a music theatre operation in Chicago.^[68] Like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco streamed the album online before its commercial release. Instead of using their own web page, the band streamed it in MPEG-4 form on Apple's website.^[69] Wilco sought to substantially change their lineup after Bach's departure, and added Pat Sansone of The Autumn Defense, and avant-garde guitarist Nels Cline to the lineup.^[65][70] Just as the band was about to tour to promote the album, Tweedy checked himself in to a rehabilitation clinic in Chicago for an addiction to opioids. As a result, tour plans for Europe were canceled, and the release date for the album was set back several weeks.^[71] A Ghost Is Born was released on June 22, 2004, and became Wilco's first top ten album in the U.S.^[72] The album earned Wilco Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Recording Package in 2005.^[73] It also placed thirteenth on 2004's Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.^[74]

In 2004, the band released The Wilco Book, a picture book detailing the creation of A Ghost Is Born. The book also contains writings and drawings from band members, as well as a CD with demos from the A Ghost Is Born recording sessions.^[75] Also that year, Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot released a biography of the band entitled Wilco: Learning How to Die. The new six-piece Wilco lineup debuted on Kicking Television: Live in Chicago, a two disc live album recorded at The Vic Theater in Chicago. Released on November 15, 2005, the album received high accolades from Spin, Billboard, and Entertainment Weekly.^[76] As of 2007, it has sold over 114,000 copies.^[60]

[edit] Sky Blue Sky

Wilco returned to their loft in Chicago to record a sixth studio album in 2006. Influenced by The Byrds and Fairport Convention, the band considered Sky Blue Sky to be less experimental than previous releases.^[60] Also unlike previous albums, the songs were created as collaborations.

Wilco streamed the album online on March 3, 2007, and offered the song "What Light" as a free MP3 download.^[77] To further publicize the album, Wilco licensed several songs from the Sky Blue Sky recording sessions for use in a Volkswagen advertising campaign. The move was criticized by both critics and fans; Wilco responded by noting that they had previously done advertising campaigns with Apple Inc. and Telefónica Móviles (Movistar).^[78][79][80] The album was released on May 15, 2007, and was a commercial success: it sold over 87,000 copies in its first week and peaked in the top five in the U.S. album charts.^[81] It also was a top forty hit in seven other countries.^[82]

Reviewer James Brubaker states that Wilco "shine[s] on a handful of the songs" on Sky Blue Sky, such as the "light, and straightforward" songs. While he calls the album "great traditional rock and folk album at times", he states that "once you get past the handful of masterful and lovely performances... the rest of the record comes off at times as dull, and forced."^[83] The allaboutjazz review also had mixed comments. While praising the album as "deceptively insinuating, almost intoxicating to listen to" and noting its "impeccable sound quality," the reviewer claimed that "Sky Blue Sky becomes the first Wilco album that sounds too careful for its own good."^[84]

Pabs Hernandez, a reviewer for Lost at Sea praised the album's "breezy atmosphere and pacing," and noted that it is not "easily judged upon first listen." Overall, Hernandez stated that it "may be no masterpiece, but at worst it's a more than worthy entry into Wilco's laudable catalogue."^[85] Reviewer Greg Locke praised the record as "one of the best albums of the year," calling it a "timeless record, full of sweet, hopeful sophistication and class" and "a lean, mean, soulful album." Like Hernandez, Locke acknowledged that the album could not be properly judged just on the first listening.^[86] The NPR review also had a positive take on the record. While the NPR reviewer stated that the recording "isn't groundbreaking," they praised its "coherent musical expression" and emphasis on "solid songcraft without pretense" which created a "satisfying and melodically sound album."^[87]

In anticipation of the 2008 US presidential election, Wilco released a downloadable version of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" that they performed with Fleet Foxes. The MP3 was available as a free download from the band's website in exchange for a promise to vote in the election.^[88] The band also made an appearance on The Colbert Report to support presidential candidate Barack Obama.^[89] Wilco released a live performance DVD, Ashes of American Flags, on April 18, 2009, to celebrate Record Store Day.^[90]

In December 2008, Jeff Tweedy, Pat Sansone, Glenn Kotche and John Stirratt traveled to Auckland, New Zealand to participate in Neil Finn's 7 Worlds Collide sequel project, The Sun Came Out, joined by Ed O'Brien, Phil Selway, Johnny Marr, KT Tunstall, Liam Finn, and Lisa Germano. They wrote and recorded several new tracks for the Oxfam-benefiting album including "You Never Know", "What Could Have Been", "Over and Done" and "Don't Forget Me". Jeff Tweedy co-wrote "Too Blue" with Johnny Marr, and Glenn, John and Pat play on most tracks on the album.^[91]

Having enjoyed their time in New Zealand and the vibe of Finn's own Roundhead Studios, the four members stayed in Auckland through January to record the foundation tracks for their next album. Jim Scott, who acted as engineer and mixer for the Neil Finn project, stayed on in the same capacity for the Wilco sessions. Nels Cline and Mikael Jorgensen would later add overdubs to these tracks at the band's Chicago Loft.

[edit] Wilco (The Album)

Wilco released their seventh album, Wilco (The Album), on June 30, 2009.^[92] In March 2009, it was announced that singer-songwriter Feist would make a guest appearance on the new album, on the track "You and I".^[93] Like their previous three albums, Wilco streamed the entirety of the album on its website prior to release.^[94] The album hit the charts at a career-high #4 with sales of 99,000 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart as well as the #2 spot on Billboard's Top Rock Albums chart.^[95] It marked Wilco's third top 10 album on the U.S. pop chart. The album's first single "You Never Know" reached the #1 spot on the AAA Chart, their first #1 in twelve years.^[96]

Beginning in April of 2009, the band freely distributed a cover of Woody Guthrie's "The Jolly Banker", downloadable from their website. It was recorded at the Wilco loft in February of that year, at the suggestion of Guthrie's daughter, Nora.^[97] Downloaders were encouraged to donate to the Woody Guthrie Foundation. Feist returned to accompany on the track, playing the Garden Weasel.^[98] The track eventually became unavailable for download. In October of 2011, the website began streaming the track via a plugin.^[99]

On May 25, 2009, former band member Jay Bennett died in his home in Urbana, Illinois.^[100] In a prepared statement, Jeff Tweedy remarked that he was "deeply saddened" by Bennett's death.^[101]

Feist and Wilco performed "You and I" on Late Show with David Letterman on July 14, 2009.^[102] In June during their West Coast tour, Wilco joined Beck, Feist, Jamie Lidell and James Gadson in the studio to take part in Beck's Record Club project, covering Skip Spence's Oar album.^[103] The first song "Little Hands" was posted on Beck's website on November 12, 2009.

On April 6, 2010, Wilco announced during their Boston performance that they would be headlining and curating a festival in North Adams, Massachusetts, dubbed Solid Sound Festival. The event ran at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art from August 13–15, and featured various Wilco side projects, including The Autumn Defense, Pronto, The Nels Cline Singers, and Jeff Tweedy solo.^[104] Other bands who appeared included Mavis Staples, Avi Buffalo, Outrageous Cherry, Richard Bishop, The Books, and Vetiver. It also featured non-musical media, such as the Bread and Puppet Theater and comedians Todd Barry, Kristen Schaal, John Mulaney, and Hannibal Buress as well as interactive musical installations by Cline and Kotche.

Wilco's contract with Nonesuch ended in 2010 and they formed their own label. Wilco announced via their web site and Twitter page on January 27, 2011 that the new label will be called dBpm Records (Decibels per Minute) and will be run out of the offices of their manager, Tony Margherita, in Easthampton, MA.^[105]

[edit] The Whole Love

Wilco's eighth studio album, The Whole Love, was released on September 27, 2011.^[106] The first single off the album is titled "I Might". The B-Side to "I Might" is a cover of Nick Lowe's 1977 song "I Love My Label". The single was shown at the Wilco's 2011 Solid Sound Festival at MassMoca and was met by positive reviews. The entire album was streamed live on Wilco's official website for 24 hours between September 3 and 4, 2011.^[107]

Musical style and influence[link]

Wilco performing in support of Sky Blue Sky at Festival Internacional de Benicàssim on July 20, 2007

Wilco's music is typically categorized as alternative rock and alternative country. Despite their career-long association with a major record label, they are generally associated with indie rock.^[108] Wilco draws influence from bands from a variety of musical genres, but primarily from music created between 1966 and 1974.^[109][110] John Cale's Paris 1919 was credited by the band as providing a musical parallel. According to Tweedy, "It was eye-opening that I wasn't the only person that felt like these worlds had a lot more in common than they'd been given credit for—that experimentation and avant-garde theory was not directly opposed to beauty, y'know?"^[111]

Other recording artists from that timespan appreciated by the band include John Lennon, Neil Young, and Brian Wilson.^[112][113] For his thirty-fourth birthday, Tweedy received a private guitar lesson from Richard Lloyd of Television; Tweedy was a big fan of the group and was particularly fond of the guitar work, which he wanted to incorporate into his music.^[67] Uncle Tupelo was inspired by bands such as Jason & the Scorchers and The Minutemen, influencing the recording of Wilco's A.M..^[114] Tweedy and O'Rourke enjoyed free jazz artists such as Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, and Derek Bailey; they also listen to mainstream jazz by artists such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane.^[115][116] The lyrical structure of Wilco's songs was dictated by classic literature and cadavre exquis—an exercise where band members take turns writing lines on a typewriter, but are only allowed to see the previously written line.^[116] Among the books that the band has cited as being stylistically influential include William H. Gass's In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, and Harold Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry.^[116][117]

Some critics have dubbed Wilco the "American Radiohead", due to their stylistically diverse catalog.^{[118][119][120]} A critic from the New York Times argues that Wilco has a "roots-rock...[sound which] reached back to proven materials: the twang of country, the steady chug of 1960s rock, the undulating sheen of the Beach Boys, the honky-tonk hymns of the Band and the melodic symmetries of pop."^[121]

Rolling Stone described Wilco as "one of America's most consistently interesting bands" and "America's foremost rock impressionists."^[122][123] Bands that have been influenced by Wilco include Derek Webb (of Caedmon's Call),^[124] The National,^[125] and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.^[126] English indie rock band Cherry Ghost took its name from a lyric from the Wilco song "Theologians" (from A Ghost Is Born)—lead singer Simon Aldred is a self-proclaimed "massive Wilco fan".^[127] Other notable artists who have covered Wilco live include Norah Jones performing "Jesus, Etc." which took place at the 2008 Bridge School Benefit where they both performed,^[128] a version of which was released as a bonus track on her 2009 release The Fall, Widespread Panic, and Counting Crows and the Wallflowers performing "California Stars."^[129]

Discography[link]

• A.M. (March 28, 1995)
• Being There (October 29, 1996)
• Summerteeth (March 9, 1999)
• Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (April 23, 2002)
• A Ghost Is Born (June 22, 2004)
• Kicking Television: Live in Chicago (November 15, 2005)
• Sky Blue Sky (May 15, 2007)
• Wilco (The Album) (June 30, 2009)
• The Whole Love (September 27, 2011)

Band member timeline[link]

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 bar:Max Johnston text:"multi-instrumentalist" from:1994 till:1996 color:official
 bar:Brian Henneman text:"guitar" from:1994 till:1995 color:official
 bar:Bob Egan text:"multi-instrumentalist" from:1995 till:1998 color:official
 bar:Jay Bennett text:"multi-instrumentalist" from:1995 till:2001 color:official
 bar:Leroy Bach text:"multi-instrumentalist" from:2000 till:2004 color:official
 bar:Jim O'Rourke text:"producer/multi-instrumentalist (studio only)" from:2001 till:2007 color:producer
 bar:Tony Margherita text:"Manager" from:1994 till:end color:manager

</timeline>

Awards and nominations[link]

Grammy Awards[link]

Shortlist Music Prizes[link]

Wired Rave Awards[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Kot, Greg (2004). Wilco: Learning How to Die (1st ed.). New York City, NY: Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-1558-5. 
• Levy, Joe (2005). Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (1st ed.). New York City, NY: Wenner Books. ISBN 1-932958-61-4. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wilco

Alternative music portal

• Official website
• Wilco at Allmusic
• Wilco at Rolling Stone

Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley at the 2009 Texas Book Festival
Born	September 26, 1949 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Field	Fiction

Jane Smiley (born September 26, 1949) is an American novelist.

Biography[link]

Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained an A.B. at Vassar College, then earned an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. While working towards her doctorate, she also spent a year studying in Iceland as a Fulbright Scholar.

Career[link]

Smiley published her first novel, Barn Blind, in 1980, and won a 1985 O. Henry Award for her short story "Lily", which was published in The Atlantic Monthly. Her best-selling A Thousand Acres, a story based on William Shakespeare's King Lear, received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992. It was adapted into a film of the same title in 1997. In 1995 she wrote her sole television script, produced for an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. Her novella The Age of Grief was made into the 2002 film The Secret Lives of Dentists. Her essay "Feminism Meets the Free Market" was included in the 2006 anthology Mommy Wars ^[1] by Washington Post writer Leslie Morgan Steiner.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel (2005), is a non-fiction meditation on the history and the nature of the novel, somewhat in the tradition of E. M. Forster's seminal Aspects of the Novel, that roams from eleventh century Japan's Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji to 21st-century American women's literature.

From 1981 to 1996, Smiley taught undergraduate and graduate creative writing workshops at Iowa State University, continuing to teach there even after relocating to California.

In 2001, Smiley was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. She participates in the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in association with UCLA. Smiley chaired the judges' panel for the prestigious Man Booker International Prize in 2009.^[2]

Works[link]

Novels

• Barn Blind (1980)
• At Paradise Gate (1981)
• Duplicate Keys (1984)
• The Greenlanders (1988)
• Ordinary Love & Good Will (1989)
• A Thousand Acres (1991)
• Moo (1995)
• The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton (1998)
• Horse Heaven (2000)
• Good Faith (2003)
• Ten Days in the Hills (2007)
• The Georges and the Jewels (UK title: Nobody's Horse) (2009)
• Private Life (2010)

Story collections

• The Age of Grief (1987)

Non-fiction

• Charles Dickens (2003)
• A Year at the Races: Reflections on Horses, Humans, Love, Money, and Luck (2004)
• Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel (2005)
• The Man Who Invented The Computer (2010)

Articles

• "So shall we reap - Great North American Prairie Ecoregion" Sierra Magazine (April/March 1994)
• "Say It Ain't So, Huck: Second Thoughts on Mark Twain's 'Masterpiece'" Harper's Magazine 292.1748 (Jan. 1996): 61-67. (1995)
• "And Moo to You Too" Civilization 2.6 (1995): 75.

Essays

• The Other Woman: Twenty-one Wives, Lovers, and Others Talk Openly About Sex, Deception, Love, and Betrayal includes "Iowa Was Never Like This"

Television

• "In Search of Crimes Past", episode of Homicide: Life on the Street (teleplay; story by Henry Bromell & Julie Martin) (1995)

References[link]

1. ^ Mommywars.net
2. ^ Man Booker Prize

External links[link]

• Jane Smiley website
• Column archive at The Guardian
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Jane Smiley on Charlie Rose
• Jane Smiley at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Jane Smiley in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Jane Smiley collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Jane Smiley collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• 2004 Slate article: "The unteachable ignorance of the red states"
• Write TV Public Television Interview with Jane Smiley
• 2003 interview of Jane Smiley, IdentityTheory
• 'Jane Smiley's Good Faith', review of Good Faith in the Oxonian Review
• In Search of Crimes Past for Homicide: Life on the Street at Internet Movie Database
• 2010 Monterey Weekly article: "In her new novel, Private Life, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author uses family history as fictional fodder."
• KCRW Bookworm Interview

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

Nels Cline
Background information
Birth name	Nels Courtney Cline[1]
Born	(1956-01-04) January 4, 1956 (age 56) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, free jazz, post bop, avant-garde, free improvisation, alternative rock, experimental, noise
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1977–present
Labels	Cryptogramophone, Nine Winds, Atavistic, Enja, Little Brother, Strange Attractors Audio House, Long Song
Associated acts	Quartet Music, Nels Cline Trio, The Nels Cline Singers, Wilco, Geraldine Fibbers, Mike Watt, G.E. Stinson, Vinny Golia, Carla Bozulich, Devin Sarno, Eric Von Essen, Thurston Moore
Website	nelscline.com
Notable instruments
1959 Fender Jazzmaster

Nels Cline (born January 4, 1956 in Los Angeles)^[2][3] is an American guitarist and composer with the Nels Cline Singers and Wilco. He was named the 82nd greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in November 2011,^[4] and the 43rd greatest guitarist of all time by Spin magazine in May 2012.^[5]

Career[link]

Cline playing a double-necked guitar with Wilco in 2010

Cline began to play guitar at age 12 when his twin brother, Alex Cline took up the drums. The pair developed musically together, playing in a youth rock band they dubbed "Homogenized Goo"^[6] and both graduated from University High School (Los Angeles, California).

Cline is known for his improvisational work and for the diversity of his musical projects, as well as his use of effects pedals and looping devices which give his music a distinct sound. He has played with jazz musicians Charlie Haden, Gregg Bendian, Wadada Leo Smith, Tim Berne, Vinny Golia and the late bassist Eric Von Essen, a longtime musical companion in the L.A. jazz group Quartet Music.

In 1983, Nels was asked by drummer Chris Mancinelli and bassist Steuart Liebig to join the early formation of BLOC. The trio developed musical ideas for about a year. At this point they added another guitarist NIcholas Kirgo and vocalist Camille Henry. The quintet became a Los Angeles club favorite and garnered much praise from the local press and media. Practically every major label was interested at some point but no major label seemed to have a clue how to promote the multi-talented group. In 1990 with Tony Peluso producing, they were signed with A&M Records after turning down a previous offer from Atlantic Records. The album "In the Free Zone" was released in early 1991. A&M at this point was in the middle of being sold to Polygram and there was little support at the label for the band. They were bought out of their 2 album deal and promptly dropped a month after the album's release. After 8 years of performing and recording the group decided to break up and move on.

Cline has also performed and recorded with punk rock bassist Mike Watt in his touring bands The Crew of the Flying Saucer and The Black Gang, as well as with members of Sonic Youth and country music legend Willie Nelson, and in the jazz/punk/improv band Banyan with Watt and ex-Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins. He frequently participates in jazz projects with his twin brother, Alex, however their first actual duo together was in Culver City, California, at their 50th birthday show.

Cline's first appearance on an album was on Vinny Golia's 1978 record, Openhearted, and his first work as a bandleader was 1988's Angelica. In the late 1980s, Cline formed the Nels Cline Trio, which featured his guitar playing complemented by Mark London Sims at bass and Michael Preussner at drums. The trio released several 7 inch demos and one album, before replacing Sims with Bob Mair at bass. This new trio released three albums before splitting up, featuring some of Cline's most melodic works, before he ventured into a freer and more minimalist territory in the decade to come. Shortly before the end of the trio, Nels recorded two albums, In-Store, and Pillow Wand, with Sonic Youth frontman and guitarist, Thurston Moore.

Nels was also a member of the Geraldine Fibbers and Scarnella with Carla Bozulich. He played on, co-arranged and produced her The Red Headed Stranger album guest-starring Jenny Scheinman, Scott Amendola, Devin Hoff and Willie Nelson, as well as Bozulich's Evangelista albums. Additionally, the two worked sporadically on performance pieces, album co-production/recording, countless tours adding up to hundreds of concerts and more during their 12 year collaboration.

In 1999, Cline paired up with jazz drummer Gregg Bendian to record a modern rendition of John Coltrane's 1967 album, Interstellar Space. On Interstellar Space Revisited: The Music of John Coltrane, Bendian and Cline reinterpret Coltrane's piece using their own distinctive approaches. He also participated in ROVA's Electric Ascension (2005), a performance of Coltrane's landmark large-ensemble recording Ascension (1965).

Cline's current outfit is the improv/free jazz ensemble The Nels Cline Singers, with which he has recorded four albums, Instrumentals, The Giant Pin, Draw Breath and Initiate, his most recent work as a leader. The Nels Cline Singers are currently signed with Cryptogramophone Records.

Another important project of Cline's has been the Acoustic Guitar Trio, a free-improvisation group with Jim McAuley and the late Rod Poole that specialized in microtonal improvisation.

Cline has performed on over 150 albums in the jazz, pop, rock, country, and experimental pop music genres. He continues to expand his audience as a member of the Grammy-winning rock band Wilco, which he joined in early 2004. He was later featured in the cover story of Guitar Player Magazine for his collaboration with the band.^[7] Cline appears on Wilco's albums Sky Blue Sky, Wilco (The Album) and The Whole Love, as well as the live album Kicking Television: Live in Chicago, and tours with the band.

In February, 2007, Cline was chosen by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the Top 20 New Guitar Gods, and given the title "The Avant Romantic."

Currently, Cline is using the Schroeder DB-7 red amplifier built for him by Tim Schroeder of Schroeder Guitar & Amp Repair (Schroeder Audio, Inc.) in Chicago, IL.^[8]

In 2012, he will appear on a cover of the Tommy Bolin song "Dreamer" with Myles Kennedy.

Personal life[link]

Cline is married to former Cibo Matto keyboardist Yuka Honda.^[2][9] Their wedding was held in Honda's hometown in Japan in November 2010.^[2][9] They met through Mike Watt when he put together the group Floored By Four.^[2][10] Honda joined Nels Cline Singers for their live shows after having her input in their new album Initiate. Watt and Cline's other recent project band, Brother's Sister's Daughter for a tour and recording session in Japan for their second album.^{[citation needed]} Cline also joined Honda as a guest guitarist in Yoko Ono Plastic Ono band in some of the dates in their tour in 2010.^[11]

Notable discography[link]

• Elegies (1980) (w. Eric Von Essen)
• Quartet Music (1981) (w. Quartet Music)
• Dressed for the Apocalypse (1984) (w. Rhythm Plague)
• Ocean Park (1984) (w. Quartet Music)
• Window on the Lake (1986) (w. Quartet Music)
• Angelica (1988)
• Summer Night (1989) (w. Quartet Music)
• In the Free Zone (1991) (w. BLOC)
• Silencer (1992) (w. Nels Cline Trio)
• Ball-hog or Tugboat? (1995) (w. Mike Watt)
• Ground (1995) (w. Nels Cline Trio)
• Chest (1996) (w. Nels Cline Trio)
• Banyan (1997) (w. Banyan)
• Butch (1997) (w. Geraldine Fibbers)
• Contemplating the Engine Room (1997) (w. Mike Watt)
• In-Store (1997) (w. Thurston Moore)
• Pillow Wand (1997) (w. Thurston Moore)
• Sad (1998) (w. Nels Cline Trio)
• Scarnella (1998) (w. Carla Bozulich)
• Rise Pumpkin Rise (1998) (w. Devin Sarno)
• Edible Flowers (1998) (w. Devin Sarno)
• Interstellar Space Revisited: The Music of John Coltrane (1999) (w. Gregg Bendian)
• The Inkling (2000)
• Live at Easthampton Town Hall (2001) (w. Zeena Parkins & Thurston Moore)
• Destroy All Nels Cline (2001)
• Acoustic Guitar Trio (2001) (w. Acoustic Guitar Trio)
• The Allure of Roadside Curios (w. L. Stinkbug)
• Instrumentals (2002) (w. The Nels Cline Singers)
• The Red Headed Stranger (2003) (w. Carla Bozulich)
• Buried on Bunker Hill (2004) (w. Devin Sarno)
• The Entire Time (2004) (w. Vinny Golia)
• Graduation (2004) (w. Chris Corsano & Carlos Giffoni)
• The Giant Pin (2004) (w. The Nels Cline Singers)
• Out Trios Series, Volume 3: Ash and Tabula (2004) (w. Andrea Parkins & Tom Rainey)
• Immolation/Immertion (2005) (w. Wally Shoup & Chris Corsano)
• Banning + Center (2005) (w. Jeremy Drake)
• Season Finale (2005) (w. Solo Career)
• Kicking Television: Live in Chicago (2005) (w. Wilco)
• Distressed (2006) (w. Zach Hill as Damsel)
• Four Guitars Live (2006) (w. Lee Ranaldo, Carlos Giffoni & Thurston Moore)
• New Monastery: A View Into The Music of Andrew Hill (2006)
• Downpour (2007) (w. Andrea Parkins & Tom Rainey)
• Sky Blue Sky (2007) (w. Wilco)
• Draw Breath (2007) (w. The Nels Cline Singers)
• Duo Milano (2007) (w. Elliott Sharp)
• Suite: Bittersweet (2007) (w. Wally Shoup & Greg Campbell)
• Nothing Makes Any Sense (2007) (w. Carlos Giffoni, Alan Licht & Lee Ranaldo)
• Coward (2009)
• Vignes (2009) (w. Acoustic Guitar Trio)
• Red Feast (2009) (w. Stephen Gauci, Ken Filiano & Mike Pride)
• Wilco (The Album) (2009) (w. Wilco)
• Elevating Device (2009) (w. G.E. Stinson)
• Stained Radiance (2010) (w. Norton Wisdom)
• The Celestial Septet (2010) (w. ROVA & The Nels Cline Singers)
• Initiate (2010) (w. The Nels Cline Singers)
• Dirty Baby (2010)
• Floored by Four (2010) (w. Mike Watt, Yuka Honda & Dougie Bowne)
• The Veil (2011) (w. Tim Berne & Jim Black as BB&C)
• The Whole Love (2011) (w. Wilco)
• The Gowanus Session (2012) (w. William Parker & Thollem McDonas)

^[12]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Q&A about Cline's DIRTY BABY project
• Schroeder Guitar & Amp Repair
• Nels Cline on Ted Kurland Associates
• The Complete Nels Cline Discography – from Little Brother Records; includes detailed descriptions of some of Nels's albums up to 1998
• Nels Cline at the SASSAS/sound. concert archives
• State of Mind - Conversation with Nels Cline - June 2007
• Multimedia story with video of Nels Cline - April 2009
• State of Mind - Conversation with Nels Cline - May 2012

Nick Lowe
Lowe performing at the Kursaal in November 2008
Background information
Birth name	Nicholas Drain Lowe
Born	(1949-03-24) 24 March 1949 (age 63) Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England
Genres	Rock, pub rock, New Wave,[1] Power Pop[1]
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano/keyboards, bass
Years active	1966–present
Labels	Columbia Records, Demon Records, F-Beat Records, Radar Records, Reprise Records, Upstart Records, Yep Roc Records, Stiff Records, Proper Records (current).
Associated acts	Brinsley Schwarz, Rockpile, Elvis Costello, The Attractions, The Imposters, Huey Lewis and the News, Noise To Go, The Cowboy Outfit, Johnny Cash, Little Village, Bill Kirchen
Website	nicklowe.net

Nicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe (born 24 March 1949), is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.

A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave,^[1][2] Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica. He is best known for his songs "Cruel to Be Kind" (a US Top 40 single), and "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" (a top 10 UK hit), as well as his production work with Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, and others. Lowe also wrote "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding", a hit for Costello.^[3] He currently lives in Brentford, London, England.

Career history[link]

Songwriter[link]

Nick's best-known songs (mostly known for cover versions) include:

• "(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding"
• "The Beast in Me"
• "I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass"
• "All Men Are Liars"
• "Cruel to Be Kind"
• "So It Goes"
• "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll)"

Producer[link]

Lowe produced Elvis Costello's first five albums, including My Aim Is True, This Year's Model, and Armed Forces. He also produced The Damned's first single, "New Rose", considered the first English punk single, as well as the group's debut album, Damned Damned Damned.

His early 'rough and ready' production style earned him the nickname Basher (as in 'bash it out now, tart it up later'). Upon moving from Stiff to Jake Riviera's Radar and F-Beat labels, Lowe became selective in his choice of production tasks.

Bands[link]

Influence[link]

A 2011 article in The New York Times starts "The 40-year career of the English singer-songwriter Nick Lowe constitutes a paradox: the songs he has written are better known than he is."^[3]

Some musicians claim to have been influenced by Lowe. Alex Turner, of the Arctic Monkeys, said that he is 'blown away' and 'back to square one' by Lowe's songwriting^[4]

Biography[link]

Lowe attended the independent Woodbridge School in Suffolk^[5] and he began his musical career in 1967, when he joined the band Kippington Lodge, with his school friend Brinsley Schwarz. They released a few singles on the Parlophone record label as Kippington Lodge before they renamed the band Brinsley Schwarz in late 1969, and began performing country and blues-rock. Lowe wrote some of his best-known compositions while a member of Brinsley Schwarz, including "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding", a hit for Elvis Costello in 1979, and "Cruel to Be Kind", a solo hit for Lowe in 1979.^[6]

After leaving Brinsley Schwarz in 1975, Lowe began playing in Rockpile with Dave Edmunds. In August 1976, Lowe released "So It Goes" b/w "Heart of the City", the first single on the Stiff Records label where he was an in-house producer.^[6] The single and thus the label was funded by a loan of £400 from Dr. Feelgood's Lee Brilleaux. The label's first EP was Lowe's 1977 four-track release Bowi, apparently named in response to David Bowie's contemporaneous LP Low. (The joke was repeated when Lowe produced The Rumour's album Max as an 'answer' to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours). Lowe continued producing albums on Stiff and other labels. In 1977 he produced Dr. Feelgood's album, Be Seeing You, which included his own song, "That's It, I Quit". The following year's Dr. Feelgood album, Private Practice, contained a song Lowe jointly penned with Gypie Mayo – "Milk and Alcohol". Along with "I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass", "Milk and Alcohol" is one of only two Lowe compositions to ever reach the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart.^[7]

Because the two main singers in Rockpile had recording contracts with different record labels and managers, albums were always credited to either Lowe or Edmunds, so there is only one official Rockpile album, which was not released until the waning days of the collaboration: 1980's Seconds of Pleasure, featuring the Lowe songs "When I Write The Book" and "Heart". However, two of the pair's most significant solo albums from the period; Lowe's Labour of Lust and Edmunds' Repeat When Necessary, were effectively Rockpile albums (as was Carlene Carter's Lowe-produced Musical Shapes album).

Lowe was quoted as saying that he had "escaped from the tyranny of the snare drum" in No Depression, (September–October 2001) when explaining his move away from regular pop music that would get played on mainstream radio.^{[citation needed]}

Other well-known Lowe songs include "I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass", "All Men Are Liars", and Cruel to Be Kind, co-written with Ian Gomm and originally recorded with Brinsley Schwarz, a re-recording of which was his only US Top 40 hit, reaching #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1979.^[6]

In 1979, Lowe married country singer Carlene Carter, daughter of fellow country singers Carl Smith and June Carter Cash and stepdaughter of Johnny Cash.^[8] He adopted her daughter, Tiffany Anastasia Lowe. The marriage ended in 1990, but they remained friends, and Lowe remained close to the Carter/Cash family. He played and recorded with Johnny Cash, and Cash recorded several of Lowe's songs.

After the demise of Rockpile, Lowe toured for a period with his band Noise To Go and later with The Cowboy Outfit, which also included the noted keyboard player Paul Carrack. Lowe was also a member of the short-lived mainly studio project Little Village with John Hiatt, Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner, who originally got together to record Hiatt's 1987 album Bring the Family.^[6]

In 1992, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" was covered by Curtis Stigers on the soundtrack album to The Bodyguard, an album that sold about 44 million copies world-wide.^[3]

A New York Daily News article^[9] quoted Lowe as saying his greatest fear in recent years was "sticking with what you did when you were famous". "I didn't want to become one of those thinning-haired, jowly old geezers who still does the same shtick they did when they were young, slim and beautiful," he said. "That's revolting and rather tragic." Rock critic Jim Farber observed: "Lowe's recent albums, epitomised by the new At My Age, moved him out of the realms of ironic pop and animated rock and into the role of a worldly balladeer, specialising in grave vocals and graceful tunes. Lowe's four most recent solo albums mine the wealth of American roots music, drawing on vintage country, soul and R&B to create an elegant mix of his own."

In 2008, Yep Roc and Proper Records released a thirtieth anniversary edition of Lowe's first solo album Jesus of Cool (entitled Pure Pop for Now People in the US with a slightly different track listing). The re-issue includes tracks from the British and American releases in addition to several bonus tracks. In March 2009, he released a 49 track CD/DVD compilation of songs which spanned his entire career. Proper Records released it in the UK and Europe, entitled Quiet Please... The New Best of Nick Lowe.

In September 2010 Yep Roc issued The Impossible Bird, Dig My Mood and The Convincer on vinyl for the first time, and after a one-night reunion concert with Elvis Costello in October in San Francisco,^[10] Lowe embarked on his first non-solo United States tour "this millennium." His backing band comprised Geraint Watkins (keyboards), Robert Treherne (drums), Johnny Scott (guitar) and Matt Radford (bass). In March 2011, Yep Roc reissued Lowe's 1979 solo album Labour of Lust.^[11]

Lowe played Glastonbury 2011, performing a short solo set of Brinsley Schwarz tracks on The Spirit Of 71 stage, where they played back in 1971, before heading to the Acoustic Stage for a full band show.

Lowe performed as an opening act for Wilco in their North American tour, September 2011. He performed solo with acoustic guitar.

Lowe is married to Peta Waddington, a designer and DJ. The couple have a son, Roy Lowe, who was born in 2005.

Discography[link]

Lowe performing with Rockpile in 1980

Studio albums[link]

• Jesus of Cool (1978, UK) (released in the US as Pure Pop for Now People)
• Labour of Lust (1979)
• Nick the Knife (1982)
• The Abominable Showman (1983)
• Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit (1984)
• The Rose of England (1985)
• Pinker and Prouder than Previous (1988)
• Party of One (1990)
• The Impossible Bird (1994)
• Dig My Mood (1998)
• The Convincer (2001)
• At My Age (2007)^[6]
• The Old Magic (2011) - UK: #66

Live albums[link]

• Untouched Takeaway (2004)

Singles[link]

^[6]

EPs[link]

• Bowi, 7" 45 rpm (Stiff 1977)
• Nick Lowe & Dave Edmunds Sing the Everly Brothers, 7" 33⅓ rpm (F-Beat/Columbia 1980)^[6]

Compilation albums[link]

• A Bunch of Stiff Records (One track, "I Love My Label")
• Live Stiffs Live (1978) (Nick Lowe's Last Chicken In The Shop got two tracks, "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll)" and "Let's Eat", on this live compilation of the first Stiff Records' tour.)
• 16 All Time Lowes (1984)
• Nick's Knack (1986)
• Basher: The Best of Nick Lowe (1989)
• The Wilderness Years (1991)
• The Doings (1999)
• Quiet Please... The New Best of Nick Lowe (2009)^[6]

Other appearances[link]

• "Baby It’s You," duet with Elvis Costello, on single "The Only Flame In Town" by Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1984)
• "In The Middle Of It All" on Adios Amigo: A Tribute to Arthur Alexander (1994)
• "I’m Coming Home" on Rig Rock Deluxe: A Musical Tribute to the American Truck Driver (1996)
• "From Now On" on Original Soundtrack: Mumford (1999)
• "Shake That Rat," bass on album Sing Along With Los Straitjackets by Los Straitjackets (2001)
• "Arrête Pas La Musique" on Evangeline Made: A Tribute to Cajun Music (2002)
• "Don’t Let The Cold," backing vocals on album Sentimental by Tanita Tikaram (2004)
• "It’s All In The Game" on Sweetheart: Love Songs (2004)
• "Only A Rose," duet with Geraint Watkins on album In A Bad Mood by Geraint Watkins (2008)
• "A Man In Love," guest vocals on album The Guest List by Martin Belmont (2009)
• "Shelly’s Winter Love," guest vocals, duet with Paul Carrack, on album Word To The Wise by Bill Kirchen (2010)
• "Changing All Those Changes" on Rave On Buddy Holly (2011)

Tributes[link]

• Labour of Love: The Music of Nick Lowe (Telarc, 2001) (features Dar Williams, Tom Petty, and Elvis Costello, among others).
• Lowe Profile: A Tribute To Nick Lowe (Brewery, 2005) (two-disc, 30 song collection featuring Dave Alvin, Foster & Lloyd, Ian Gomm, among others).
• 5 songs on "The Stiff Generation: If it Ain't Stiff it Ain't Worth a Tribute" (Groove Disques, 2002).
• 5 songs on "Happy Doing What We're Doing" (Freedom [City Hall], 2005) by Elizabeth McQueen and the Firebrands.

Uses in media[link]

• "Without Love" from the album "Labour of Lust" appeared on the soundtrack of the film "Americathon".
• "(I Love the Sound of) Breaking Glass" was used on the soundtrack album of the film "That Summer".
• His recording of "So It Goes" appeared on the soundtrack of the Roger Corman movie "Rock 'N' Roll High School", which featured the Ramones.
• "We Want Action" from the album "The Abominable Showman" appeared on the soundtrack of the film "Easy Money".
• An original song "Little Cat (You've Never had it So Good)" was written for the British rock opera film "Absolute Beginners", which starred David Bowie and Sade.
• The music video for "All Men Are Liars" was featured in The Brothers Grunt episode "The Ugly Gruntling".
• His recording of "The Beast in Me" was used in the pilot episode of The Sopranos.
• The song "All Men Are Liars" was featured in the Australian film All Men Are Liars written and directed by Gerard Lee and starring Toni Pearen, David Price and John Jarratt.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nick Lowe (musician)

• Official website
• The Old Magic UK page
• Batty for Music podcast
• Allmusic
• Nick Lowe at the Internet Movie Database
• Electronic press kit for "Quiet Please..."
• Return of the Man Who Used to Rock - NY Times 9-13-11