Photo by Ellen Qbertplaya via Bill Bragg’s Facebook page

Wilco continue to highlight material from their beloved collaboration with Billy Bragg, Mermaid Avenue on the road. The Chicago-based group reunited with Bragg for a set of songs off Mermaid Avenue, the three-volume collection of Woody Guthrie lyrics that they set to new music, at their bi-annual Solid Sound festival in North Adams, MA on June 26. The performance marked the first time Bragg had joined the members of Wilco for a full show dedicated to the enduring tracks–and the night featured several bust outs and even a few debuts.

One tune that received a revival was “Christ for President,” which Wilco had not performed since a September 23, 2017, appearance in Kansas City, MO; the group has seemingly rekindled their love of the cut and offered it again at both Tulsa, OK’s Cain’s Ballroom on July 1 and The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, TX on July 3. The latter stop was part of the Outlaw Music Festival and, at the end of the night, the members of Wilco and other event performers, like Sheryl Crow and Margo Price, joined headliner Willie Nelson for his traditional show-closing sing-along. The concert kicked off a string of dates with Nelson, including the country great’s annual 4th of July Picnic at the Germania Insurance Amphitheater in Austin, TX on Independence Day and another Outlaw stop at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, TX last night. During both of those festive gatherings, the members of Wilco joined Nelson for his show-closing revue once again and also invited out his harmonica player Mickey Raphael for a Mermaid Avenue favorite that lives on in the group’s catalog, “California Stars.”

Bragg has also weighed in on the Mermaid Avenue show at Solid Sound, recounting on social media: “It’s been a long time coming, but Wilco and I finally got to play the Mermaid Avenue songs together at The Solid Sound Festival and you can hear the full show by clicking the link below. But be quick – it will only be available for a few days! When the first Mermaid Avenue album came out in 1998, Wilco were on the verge of releasing their seminal Summerteeth album, so were weren’t able to tour together. Over the years, whenever we’ve appeared on the same bill at a festival, Jeff Tweedy has invited me up to sing ‘California Stars’ and we’ve talked about giving Woody’s songs a proper airing. But for that to happen, the stars had to align. Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival, held biannually at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, has always featured the band’s many electric collaborations and a Mermaid Avenue set seemed an ideal fit. However, the festival always falls on the same weekend as Glastonbury, making it impossible for me to attend, given my role as co-curator of the Left Field. With Glastonbury taking a fallow year out, the opportunity finally presented itself and I was able to travel to Massachusetts last weekend to spend a day rehearsing songs we recorded twenty eight years ago, many of which had never been performed live by either Wilco or I. On Friday night, having played a solo show at the festival that afternoon, I took the stage with Wilco for a performance that was streamed live by local radio station New England Public Media. Featuring songs from all three Mermaid Avenue albums and with special guest appearances from Natalie Merchant and Nora Guthrie, you can listen to the whole show for free for the next few days by clicking the link here. It was a whole lot of fun. I hope we get to do it again sometime.” 

Wilco will perform at the Grind City Amphitheater, Memphis, TN tomorrow.