Welcome to Wilcopedia (The Blog) with an “Airline to Heaven”

Welcome to Wilcopedia (The Blog)! This is a blog centered around my first book, Wilcopedia: A Comprehensive Guide To The Music Of America’s Best Band, which is releasing next month via Jawbone Press, on September 17 (pre-order it here). In this space, I’ll feature excerpts, stuff that was cut, coverage of my minor book tour, and all kinds of material related to Wilcopedia, Wilco (The Band), and whatnot that I deem worthy for this blog.

I’ll start off with an excerpt from Wilcopedia: the entry for “Airline to Heaven,” the first track on Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, Wilco's 2000 collaboration with Billy Bragg. 

“Airline to Heaven” (Woody Guthrie, Jay Bennett, and Jeff Tweedy)

Jay Bennett: 12-string acoustic slide guitars, backing vocal, shakers, saw, claps
John Stirratt: backing vocal, claps
Jeff Tweedy: vocal, acoustic guitar, mellotrons, claps

This rapture-ready, energetically strummed, folk rocker kicks off Mermaid Avenue Vol. II with great gusto. It's a superb choice of opener as it features full rich verses, and an elevated chorus, all in service of spiritual words Guthrie wrote in 1939. Performed by the stripped down trio of Bennett, Stirratt, and Tweedy, the drum-less, head bopping faux-gospel cut oddly recalls Led Zeppelin at their folkiest (think “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp”).

“Rawness rules on ‘Airline to Heaven,’ a rambunctious hootenanny groove over which Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy slags off money-grubbing messiahs in a sly drawl.” - Greg Kot, Rolling Stone (2000) 

An alternate take of the song appeared on the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Alison Maclean’s 1999 drama “Jesus’ Son,” and was re-issued in 2014 on Alpha Mike Foxtrot. And a live version recorded in May 2005 at the Vic Theatre in Chicago appeared on Wilco’s 2005 live release, Kicking Television: Live in Chicago.

The extras for the 2009 DVD Wilco Live: Ashes of American Flags feature Wilco performing “Airline to Heaven” at Cain’s Ballroom, in Tulsa, Oklahoma on March 8, 2008.

But one of the best live versions of “Airline to Heaven” took place at Farm Aid in 2005 at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park, Illinois. The performance, which was broadcast on The Nashville Network (TNN), was largely notable because Wilco were introduced by then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama. 

After speaking about giving advocacy and support to America’s farms, Obama told the audience, ‘My main job is to introduce to all of you a homegrown band, a Chicago band, they’ve won Grammys, they’ve had gold records, and they’re back home to support the families of America – I want everybody to give it up for Wilco!’

This live rendition of “Airline to Heaven,” with Obama’s intro, appears on the 2008 DVD release of the Farm Aid 2005: 20th Anniversary Concert.

Thanks for checking out the first post of Wilcopedia (The Blog)!

More later...