SONG OF THE DAY

“California Stars” by Billy Bragg & Wilco (Mermaid Avenue, Elektra Records, 1998). Written by Woody Guthrie, music by Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett.

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

– Mermaid Avenue is a 1998 album of previously unheard lyrics written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie, put to music written and performed by British singer Billy Bragg and the American band Wilco.

– The project was organized by Guthrie’s daughter, Nora Guthrie. During the spring of 1995, she contacted English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg about writing music for a selection of completed Guthrie lyrics. Her father had left behind over a thousand sets of complete lyrics written between 1939 and 1967; none of these lyrics had any music other than a vague stylistic notation. Bragg 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.

– Nora Guthrie’s liner notes in Mermaid 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.

– A second volume of recordings, Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, followed in 2000.

– The projects are named after a song “Mermaid’s Avenue” written by Guthrie. This was also the street in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York on which Guthrie lived.

– Rather than recreating tunes in Guthrie’s style, Bragg and Wilco created new, contemporary music for the lyrics. What seemed like a risky enterprise surprised everyone, the results were met with universal acclaim.

– The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and went on to place fourth on the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1998 (right behind Bob Dylan’s Live 1966).

– In 2008, Jonatha Brooke released The Works, a project that similarly drew on the trove of unpublished Guthrie material.

– According to Bob Dylan’s autobiography, Chronicles, Woody Guthrie offered his unpublished songs to Dylan, but the young singer was unable to get them from Guthrie’s family.

– Man in the Sand, a documentary about the collaboration between Billy Bragg and Wilco, was released in 1999.

– The song “California Stars” is played during the closing scene of the 2007 film King of California starring Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

And live: