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| Mermaid Avenue | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Billy Bragg andWilco | ||||
| Released | June 23, 1998 (1998-06-23) | |||
| Studio | Totally Wired Studios, Dublin; Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin; King Size Sound Laboratories, Chicago; Boston | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 49:20 | |||
| Label | Elektra | |||
| Producer | Wilco,Billy Bragg,Grant Showbiz | |||
| Billy Bragg chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Wilco chronology | ||||
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| Billy Bragg & Wilco chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Chicago Sun-Times |  [4] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+[5] |
| The Guardian | [6] |
| Los Angeles Times | [7] |
| Pitchfork | 7.8/10[8] |
| Rolling Stone | [9] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [10] |
| Spin | 8/10[11] |
| The Village Voice | A[12] |
Mermaid Avenue is a 1998album of previously unheard lyrics written byAmericanfolk singerWoody Guthrie, put to music written and performed by British singerBilly Bragg and the American bandWilco. The project was the first of several such projects organized by Guthrie's daughter,Nora Guthrie, original director of theWoody Guthrie Foundation and archives.Mermaid Avenue was released on theElektra Records label on June 23, 1998. A second volume of recordings,Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, followed in 2000 and both were collected in a box set alongside volume three in 2012 asMermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions. The projects are named after the song "Mermaid's Avenue", written by Guthrie. This was also the name of the street inConey Island,New York, on which Guthrie lived. According toAmerican Songwriter Magazine, "The Mermaid Avenue project is essential for showing that Woody Guthrie could illuminate what was going on inside of him as well as he could detail the plight of his fellow man".[13] It was voted number 939 inColin Larkin'sAll Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).[14]
During the spring of 1995,Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora contacted English singer-songwriterBilly Bragg about writing music for a selection of completed Guthrie lyrics after Bragg played a Guthrie tribute concert in New York City's Central Park.[15] Her father had left behind over a thousand sets of complete lyrics written between 1939 and 1967; as they had not been recorded by Guthrie, and he did not write music, none of these lyrics had any music other than a vague stylistic notation.
Nora Guthrie's liner notes inMermaid Avenue indicate that it was her intention that the songs be given to a new generation of musicians who would be able to make the songs relevant to a younger generation. Nora Guthrie contacted Bragg, who in turn approached Wilco and asked them to participate in the project as well. Wilco agreed, and in addition to recording with Bragg in Ireland, they were given their own share of songs to finish.
Rather than recreating tunes in Guthrie's style, Bragg and Wilco created new, contemporary music for the lyrics. Released in 1998 asMermaid Avenue, the results were met with critical success.[citation needed] The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and went on to place fourth on thePazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1998.
Since the release of theMermaid Avenue albums, several other musicians have released recordings that similarly have drawn uponunpublished Guthrie material.[citation needed]
Man in the Sand, a documentary about the collaboration between Billy Bragg and Wilco, was released in 1999. A DVD of the film is included inMermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions.
Bob Dylan tells in his autobiography that Woody Guthrie asked him to reach out to Guthrie's wifeMargie and get the boxes of songs and poems that had been written but never set to melodies. Dylan makes his way to Guthrie's place but Margie was not there, only Guthrie's sonArlo and the babysitter. Neither had any idea about the box, and Dylan headed back to New York. Dylan writes in his autobiographyChronicles: "Forty years later, these lyrics would fall into the hands of Billy Bragg and the group Wilco and they would put melodies to them, bring them to full life and record them. It was all done under the direction of Woody's daughter Nora. These performers probably weren't even born when I had made that trip to Brooklyn."[16]
All lyrics are written byWoody Guthrie
| No. | Title | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Walt Whitman's Niece" (Words: 1946; Music: 1997) | Billy Bragg | 3:53 |
| 2. | "California Stars" (Music: 1997) | Jay Bennett/Jeff Tweedy | 4:57 |
| 3. | "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key" (Words: 1946; Music: 1997) | Bragg | 4:06 |
| 4. | "Birds and Ships" (Music: 1997) | Bragg | 2:13 |
| 5. | "Hoodoo Voodoo" | Wilco (Tweedy/Bennett/John Stirratt/Ken Coomer)/Bragg/Corey Harris | 3:12 |
| 6. | "She Came Along to Me" (Words: 1942; Music: 1998) | Bragg/Tweedy/Bennett | 3:26 |
| 7. | "At My Window Sad and Lonely" (Words: 1939; Music: 1997) | Tweedy | 3:27 |
| 8. | "Ingrid Bergman" (Words: 1950; Music: 1996) | Bragg | 1:50 |
| 9. | "Christ for President" (Music: 1997) | Tweedy/Bennett | 2:39 |
| 10. | "I Guess I Planted" (Music: 1997) | Bragg | 3:32 |
| 11. | "One by One" (Words: 1939; Music: 1997) | Tweedy | 3:22 |
| 12. | "Eisler on the Go" (Music: 1997) | Bragg | 2:56 |
| 13. | "Hesitating Beauty" (Words: 1949; Music: 1997) | Tweedy | 3:04 |
| 14. | "Another Man's Done Gone" (Music: 1998) | Bragg | 1:34 |
| 15. | "The Unwelcome Guest" (Words: 1940; Music: 1996) | Bragg | 5:09 |
Additional musicians
| Chart (1998–1999) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[17] | 12 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[18] | 34 |
| USBillboard 200[19] | 90 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC)[20] | 67 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[21] | Gold | 35,000^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[22] | Silver | 60,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
