\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div> \t\t\t\t\tKim Deal performs with the Breeders<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharles Harris\/Solid Sound Festival<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tToward the end of the main set, as Wilco and Bragg performed the rollicking \u201cHoodoo Voodoo,\u201d another guest dashed out onstage. Woody\u2019s daughter Nora Guthrie, who has spent many years shepherding her father\u2019s musical legacy, was rocking a cowbell and getting into the spirit. She was the one who made the original Mermaid Avenue <\/em>sessions happen back then, as Tweedy noted: \u201cNone of this would be possible without Nora.\u201d A few minutes later, when the band returned for the encore, Tweedy took a moment to remember multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett, who was a key contributor to Wilco\u2019s musical growth in the Nineties before leaving the band on difficult terms in 2001. \u201cA lot of these songs wouldn\u2019t be here without Jay,\u201d Tweedy said. \u201cHe was a big champion of this project at the time\u2026 I kind of feel like, if he was still around, he\u2019d be here, and I wish that could have happened.\u201d Then he sang the Mermaid Avenue<\/em> mourning song \u201cAnother Man\u2019s Done Gone,\u201d giving a genuinely emotional solo vocal performance. It was a moving nod to his former bandmate, who died<\/a> in 2009, and like the whole night\u2019s show, a reminder of how someone can live on in a way if you keep singing their songs.<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\tThey closed the night one encore with a warm-hearted group singalong to \u201cCalifornia Stars,\u201d a song that has capped off so many Wilco shows over the years that it\u2019s easy to forget its Mermaid Avenue<\/em> origins, and \u201cThis Land Is Your Land,\u201d a non-Mermaid<\/em> song they just couldn\u2019t skip on a night like this. Everyone was onstage by now \u2014 Tweedy\u2019s sons, Guthrie\u2019s grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and assorted other family members and friends, all joining their voices together with the thousands in the crowd to sing Woody\u2019s words about cooperation and kindness. \u201cThis has really been a moment I\u2019ve been waiting for a long, long time, to see my boys all together here again,\u201d Nora said, gesturing at Tweedy and Bragg. She thanked us all for being there, and like her father would have done, she urged us to get to work making a better world.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tGang of Four<\/a>\u2018s Jon King<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharles Harris\/Solid Sound Festival<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tAnd that was just the first night. Night two of Solid Sound, as always, was headlined by a second Wilco concert \u2014\u00a0no particular theme, just a spectacular night with America\u2019s greatest live rock & roll band. This year\u2019s Saturday night special began with smooth jazzman Bob James<\/a> and Wilco\u2019s Mikael Jorgensen doing a soulful keyboard duet on the theme song from the Seventies sitcom Taxi<\/em>, which James composed. (This song might seem to have little to do with Wilco, but just go with it.) Wilco played sun-bright power-pop on \u201cCandyfloss\u201d and \u201cAnnihilation,\u201d dueted with rising singer-songwriter Elizabeth Moen on \u201cForget the Flowers\u201d and a returning Natalie Merchant on \u201cYou and I,\u201d and broke out a sweet pedal-steel arrangement of \u201cI\u2019m Always in Love\u201d that completely transformed the song. Nels Cline gave one of his most mind-blowing \u201cImpossible Germany\u201d solos, building from elegant deconstruction to violent noise; at one point, he managed to re-tune his guitar while playing it, integrating the torqued notes and empty spaces into the solo.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThere were many, many other highlights on night two, too many to name here. The biggest were arguably the two brand-new Wilco songs that they debuted in the middle of the set. The first one, a work in progress called \u201cFlawed Men,\u201d was a Dylanesque gem, full of philosophical questions and gnomic wisdom. \u201cI get this feeling every June,\u201d Tweedy sang to big cheers. \u201cIs it ever really the truth, what you put on the stage?\u201d The second new song, \u201cLosing Traction,\u201d featured a pointed chorus with state-of-the-union overtones: \u201cThe sky\u2019s still blue, whatever they say\/Lately the truth is losing traction\/I don\u2019t think we should ever get used to living this way.\u201d It also featured the instant-classic Tweedy one-liner \u201cI was only depressed when I still gave a fuck.\u201d They might still be working out the arrangements for these songs (he noted that they need to come up with an ending for \u201cFlawed Men\u201d), but their lyrical strength was remarkable, and they left everyone on that field eager to see what Wilco have coming up next.<\/p>\n \n\tThroughout the weekend, someone wandering around Mass MoCA\u2019s campus might have caught excellent mainstage opening acts like Gang of Four (featuring Ted Leo on guitar) or the Breeders, representing two strains of Eighties and Nineties alt\/punk rock. Sharp Pins<\/a> soaked a museum courtyard in Beatles-y melody on one afternoon; Hannah Cohen<\/a> sang lovely slow-burn ballads in a light-filled gallery on another. Wilco side projects like the Autumn Defense (featuring bassist John Stirratt and guitarist Pat Sansone playing sunny folk-pop) and Nels Cline\u2019s instrumental Consentrik Quartet were around every corner. It\u2019s a stacked lineup, full of little and big surprises, and the more time you spend at Solid Sound, the more you\u2019ll find to enjoy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tJeff Tweedy and guests close out the festival<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJamie Kelter Davis\/Solid Sound Festival<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tThe festival closed, as always, with a Jeff Tweedy set to send everyone on their way after three days of music. In past years, that\u2019s often been a gentle acoustic farewell of sorts, but this year Tweedy came to rock. He performed with the tight combo heard on last year\u2019s magisterial solo album Twilight Override<\/em><\/a>, featuring his sons Spencer and Sammy Tweedy, plus their lifelong pals Macie Stewart, Liam Kazar, and Sima Cunningham (visibly pregnant and looking cool as hell as she tore it up on bass guitar). \u201cI\u2019ve known all of these people since they were little children,\u201d Tweedy said. All of them, he noted, grew up within walking distance of one another in Chicago. If this festival represents anything, he said, it\u2019s the power of \u201cmaking some shit with your friends.\u201d They showed what that means with a set full of uninhibited, uplifting energy, big smiles and bigger guitar solos, and covers that ranged from Donna Summer\u2019s \u201cHot Stuff\u201d (dedicated to Tweedy\u2019s wife, Susie) to Pops Staples\u2019 \u201cFriendship\u201d to John Denver\u2019s \u201cTake Me Home, Country Roads\u201d to, finally, Dylan\u2019s \u201cYou Ain\u2019t Goin\u2019 Nowhere.\u201d Everyone was onstage by now, once again \u2014 several members of Wilco, Case Oats<\/a>\u2018 Casey Gomez Walker, singer-guitarist Ella Feingold, and more. Together they formed a many-branched musical family that felt like it had room for all of us stretched out across the grass in the summer sun, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cTaking care of each other is all we can do,\u201d Tweedy said at another point, summing up the inclusive ethos that defines Solid Sound. He urged us to love one another, as he\u2019d done several times throughout the weekend. Then he kept on playing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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