Lost & Found

I guess stumbling onto "lost" Woody Guthrie material shouldn't come as too much of a surprise considering the amount of it that has surfaced over the years, leading to a number of releases - including the fantastic Mermaid Avenue albums. What has alluded Guthrie fans though has been any actual live recordings of the famed folk singer in action - that is until now. Check out this great story about how Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949 came to be - head here.

Return To Mermaid Avenue?

Saw this posted on Hidden Track yesterday and it got me really excited.....

“The British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, and Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett of the American band Wilco added music to 30 of Mr. Guthrie’s lyrics and released them on the acclaimed Mermaid Avenue albums in 1998 and 2000. Mr. Bragg and Wilco will perform together for the first time in seven years on Oct. 17 at Webster Hall in New York, at a benefit show to combat Huntington’s disease, the illness that ended Mr. Guthrie’s career in the mid-1950s.” [New York Times]

After doing some investigating seems like Wilco is in Detroit that night, though Billy Bragg's site does have him playing Webster Hall that day. So either the author of the article spoke to soon or maybe the date is wrong - hopefully it's the latter, since I'd love to see this.

If you don't already own the two Mermaid Avenue albums go buy them right now. Seriously go, right now!

And for those of us who've been infatuated with those album since their release go and download this....

Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue Demos (via Dimeadozen)