Track Listing
Click tracks with speaker icon to listen| 1 | Walt Whitman's Niece | 3:53 |
| 2 | California Stars | 4:57 |
| 3 | Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key | 4:06 |
| 4 | Birds and Ships | 2:13 |
| 5 | Hoodoo Voodoo | 3:12 |
| 6 | She Came Along to Me | 3:26 |
| 7 | At My Window Sad and Lonely | 3:27 |
| 8 | Ingrid Bergman | 1:50 |
| 9 | Christ for President | 2:39 |
| 10 | I Guess I Planted | 3:32 |
| 11 | One by One | 3:22 |
| 12 | Eisler on the Go | 2:56 |
| 13 | Hesitating Beauty | 3:04 |
| 14 | Another Man's Done Gone | 1:34 |
| 15 | The Unwelcome Guest | 5:09 |
News & Reviews
- Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Billy Bragg Launches Tour of New Zealand & Australia Celebrating Woody Guthrie Centenary with Songs of "Mermaid Avenue"
Billy Bragg launches a tour of New Zealand and Australia this Friday, October 12, in celebration of the life and legacy of Woody Guthrie, on the 100th anniversary of the folk legend’s birth. The shows will feature songs from the Mermaid Avenue albums, in which Bragg and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy set Guthrie's words to music, as well as songs from throughout Bragg's career. The New Zealand leg includes stops in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, and Christchurch; the Australia leg in Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, and Perth.
- Friday, August 3, 2012
Billy Bragg to Bring "Ain’t Nobody That Can Sing Like Me" Tour to Australia & New Zealand
Billy Bragg will bring his Ain't Nobody That Can Sing Like Me tour to New Zealand and Australia this October in celebration of the life and legacy of Woody Guthrie, on the 100th anniversary of the folk legend’s birth. The first half of each show on the tour features songs from the Mermaid Avenue albums, in which Bragg and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy put Guthrie's words to music; the second half of the sets features songs from throughout Bragg's career. The New Zealand and Australia shows follow a similarly focused months-long tour of Europe and North America.
About this Album
When American folk legend Woody Guthrie died in 1967, at the age of 55, among his stored belongings were thousands of complete song lyrics for which he had not written out music or made recordings. Many of them had been written in the 1940s and ’50s, in the Guthrie family home on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The lyrics remained in boxes for decades, but once his daughter Nora found them in the 1990s, she knew they had to be shared. She approached English singer-songwriter and activist Billy Bragg to select some to set to music. The Chicago rock band Wilco came aboard soon after, with Jeff Tweedy writing music—along with his late bandmate Jay Bennett on some songs—and the band recording with both Tweedy and Bragg on vocals. Natalie Merchant joined the group to sing a duet with Bragg and two solo songs, and guitarist/singer Corey Harris, who wrote two songs and co-wrote one, performed on many tracks. In 1998, the first batch of songs, heard here, was released to critical acclaim as Mermaid Avenue, receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
Credits
MUSICIANS
Jay Bennett, piano (1, 2, 9-13), clavinet (1, 9), Farfisa organ (1), drums (1), backing vocal (2, 7, 10, 13), Hammond B3 (3, 7, 10), bouzouki (3), organ (5, 11), Farfisa bass pedals (5), electric bass (6), slide guitar (6), acoustic guitar (6), harmony vocal (6), dulcimer (7), banjo (9), handclaps (10), melodica (12, 15), percussion (12), electric guitar (13), grand piano (14, 15)
Billy Bragg, acoustic guitar (1-4, 8, 10, 15), lead vocal (1, 3, 6, 10, 15), electric guitar (5, 13), bouzouki (7), backing vocal (7, 10), vocal (8, 12), National guitar (9, 12), handclaps (10), banjo (12)
Ken Coomer, drums (1-3, 5-7, 9-11, 13, 15), percussion (1-3, 6, 9), backing vocal (10), handclaps (10)
John Stirratt, acoustic bass (1, 9), electric bass (2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15), backing vocal (2, 7), piano [bass] (5), Hammond B3 (6), acoustic guitar (6), bass pedals (9), backing vocal (10), handclaps (10)
Jeff Tweedy, electric guitar (1, 10), harmonica (1, 6, 15), acoustic guitar (2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 15), lead vocal (2, 7, 13), vocal (5, 9, 11, 14), backing vocal (10), handclaps (10), harmony vocal (15)
Wilco, answering vocals (1)
Jonathan “JP” Parker, answering vocals (1)
Eliza Carthy, violin (2, 3)
Corey Harris, lap steel guitar (2), electric guitar (5), backing vocal (10), handclaps (10)
Natalie Merchant, backing vocal (3), vocal (4)
Elizabeth Steen, accordion (3)
Peter Yanowitz, chorus drums (3)
Bob Egan, slide guitar (6), pedal steel (11, 15)
Words by Woody Guthrie. Music by Billy Bragg (1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15); Jay Bennett / Jeff Tweedy (2); Wilco / Billy Bragg / Corey Harris (5); Billy Bragg / Jeff Tweedy / Jay Bennett (6); Jeff Tweedy (7, 11, 13); Jeff Tweedy / Jay Bennett (9)
