Mermaid Avenue At 25

There’s an anecdote in Bob Dylan’s 2004 book Chronicles: Volume One where Dylan visits Woody Guthrie’s home in Coney Island. He’s there to get songbooks, full of material that is left unrecorded due to Guthrie’s declining health. In an alleged stroke of very bad luck, Guthrie’s wife Marjorie is not home, so Dylan leaves empty-handed, depriving the world of a potential collaboration between two of the greatest American folk artists.

“At My Window Sad and Lonely,” a track from Billy Bragg and Wilco’s Mermaid Avenue, is Dylan-esque. Jeff Tweedy is at his raspiest and the production is straight from Highway 61 Revisited. It’s clear why Dylan would have been the first choice (hypothetical or otherwise). But fortunately, in some miracle of music, the combination of Billy Bragg’s forceful guitar and Wilco’s versatile, Americana sound created a shockingly good tribute to one of America’s most influential musicians… read more >