Track Listing
Click tracks with speaker icon to listen| 1 | Bugeye Jim | 3:13 |
| 2 | When the Roses Bloom Again | 4:07 |
| 3 | Gotta Work | 2:12 |
| 4 | My Thirty Thousand | 2:37 |
| 5 | Ought to Be Satisfied Now | 3:30 |
| 6 | Listening to the Wind That Blows | 5:04 |
| 7 | Go Down to the Water | 4:32 |
| 8 | Chain of Broken Hearts | 3:27 |
| 9 | Jailcell Blues | 2:23 |
| 10 | Don't You Marry | 3:14 |
| 11 | Give Me a Nail | 1:38 |
| 12 | The Jolly Banker | 3:27 |
| 13 | Union Prayer | 4:09 |
| 14 | Be Kind to the Boy on the Road | 3:42 |
| 15 | Ain'ta Gonna Grieve | 4:48 |
| 16 | Tea Bag Blues | 4:00 |
| 17 | I'm Out to Get | 3:56 |
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 was released to critical acclaim as Mermaid Avenue, receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album. This second volume followed in 2000. This third volume, released in conjunction with Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions 3CD+DVD set in 2012, comprises 17 previously unreleased recordings from the original sessions.
Credits
MUSICIANS
Billy Bragg, resonator guitar (1, 10), vocal (1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 17), guitar (2, 4), electric guitar (5, 11, 14, 17), tenor banjo (7, 13), acoustic guitar (9), keyboards (11), mandolin (15), backing vocal (16)
Jay Bennett, keyboards (2, 6, 11), banjo (4, 8, 17), melodica (4), backing vocal (4), mandolin (8, 17), harmonica (8), acoustic guitar (9), piano (11, 15), organ (14), Hammond B3 (15), Farfisa bass pedals (15), high-strung Epiphone guitar (17)
Ken Coomer, drums (2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 14, 15), percussion (8), tambourine (11), whistle (11), small drum drums (17)
Bob Egan, pedal steel guitar (2)
Corey Harris, lap steel (2, 11), acoustic guitar (3, 16), vocal (3, 16), guitar (15), electric guitar (17)
John Stirratt, bass (2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 14, 15, 17), bass guitar (12)
Jeff Tweedy, acoustic guitar (2, 3, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 17), vocal (2, 6, 8, 12, 15), guitar (6) , 12-string electric guitar (11), electric guitar (14), lead electric guitar (15)
Eliza Carthy, violin (4, 7, 13)
Ben Ivitsky, viola (5, 13)
Glenn Kotche, drums (12), percussion [Jim Scott's cash and garden tools] (12)
Mikael Jorgensen, Hammond B3 (12), Leslie cab (12)
Nels Cline, lap steel (12)
Patrick Sansone, harpsichord (12)
Leslie Feist, a garden tool (12)
Words by Woody Guthrie (1, 3-17), Will D. Cobb (2). Music by Billy Bragg (1, 4, 5, 7, 9-11, 13, 14, 17); Jeff Tweedy (2, 6, 8); Corey Harris (3, 16); Woody Guthrie (12); Jeff Tweedy / Jay Bennett (15)
