Tag Archives: Mermaid Avenue III

“The Scribbling Really Did Stay” – Billy Bragg on Songwriting

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By Robin Wheeler

I shook hands with the lumberjack and we went our opposite ways. I never did get a real close look at him in the clouds; and when he walked away, his head and shoulders just sort of swum away in the fog of the morning. I had made another friend I couldn’t see. And I walked along thinking, Well, now, I don’t know if I’ll ever see that man again or not, but I’ll see a lot of men a lot of places and I’ll wonder if that could be him. “The House on the Hill” from “Bound for Glory”

While strangers might not have been so friendly (or interesting) in the hotel bar on Friday night, my decision to do some time in there was a good one in the long run. The emotional prophylactic of that sterile environment prepped me for the heart-bursting level of emotion that was Saturday.

Saturday morning, none of the issues that plagued my travel attempts to Lincoln Square on Friday night reappeared. Pretty sure the universe really wanted me to stay put that night. Arrived at the Old Town School of Folk with plenty of time to stake out a good spot for Billy Bragg’s workshop: “Why Write a Song?: Protest Music in the Digital Age.” Not that there was a bad spot; the audience was kept at around 100 people, hosted in an acoustically-perfect room, going 90 minutes instead of the allotted 60.

All that for $35. And I never would have known about it had I not called the box office, begging for concert tickets two weeks ago. Sometimes it pays to be a pest.

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The Sausage Queen of Chicago Fails

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Sent from my iPad

On Jun 22, 2012, at 10:21 PM, Robin Wheeler wrote:
I’m supposed to be at a sausage party. Instead I’m 15 stories above the Chicago River,watching the sun set on one of the longest days of the year, listening to a woman, buzzed on Prosecco, rattle to her mate about… I can’t even tell. Or care. She likes the smell of cut limes. Who doesn’t? 
I’m drinking a $9 can of beer, so I have no room to judge.
The sausage  party – it’s not that kind of sausage party.  My friend

Sam invited me to have join her friends on the roof of a sausage shop in LincoIn Square. 

 

How perfectly Chicago.

I tried to go. Left my Merchandise Mart hotel for the Brown Line, keeping an eye out for a quick dinner option in case there wasn’t any sausage at the sausage party. Despite knowing the way to my train stop, I ignored my instincts, setting my trust in my phone’s GPS, which immediately panicked when faced with tall buildings.  
One hour, one chicken roti plate, and one rubbed blister on top of my foot later, and countless wrong turns later, I gave up on sausage and returned to the hotel.  
I can’t even hop the L. I’d make a terrible hobo. 

I really wanted to see Sam, to see if she’s as vivacious and music-driven as I recall. We met at a Wilco fan party in Winnetka four years ago. When
“Monday” came on she erupted in a bounce of pure, unashamed joy. I always did the same to that song, but never in public. Tonight, I wanted to leap and squeal with Sam. Being on the roof of a sausage shop just adds to the magic. 

 

But I’d reached my limit. A few short nights, trip pep, five hours on a bus, and my typical Chicago comedy of errors… I could have gone, but my gut told me to save my reserves for tomorrow. Said gut is doing the “I Told You So” Dance (Which is also done to the tune of “Monday”), so I begrudgingly heed.  

 

You wouldn’t think a place with alcohol and this view would be depressing.

Watching “Man in the Sand” on the Eve of Billy Bragg’s Woody Guthrie Tributes

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There’s no reasonable excuse for me taking 11 years to watch “Man in the Sand,” the documentary about the making of “Mermaid Avenue.” It’s been on Netflix streaming for years. The 3-CD “Mermaid Avenue” re-release that I bought in April includes a DVD of the film.

I love music documentaries. Why haven’t I watched the one about the music I love the most? Because I’m avoidant. That’s the only excuse I can conjure. Fear that it’ll disappoint, or ruin the myth.

But today, I’m watching it, since I’m leaving for Chicago early in the morning. On Saturday I’ll be seeing Billy Bragg performing Woody Guthrie songs at the Old Town School of Folk. That morning? A songwriting workshop with Bragg.

I need to brush up.

In the first few minutes of the movie, Nora Guthrie narrates that she asked Bragg to do this project to “look for the man behind the myth with me.” And then she utters what has become my favorite words from Woody: “My dad would only say, ‘All you can write is what you see.”

Okay, I’m in.

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Billy Bragg Tours For Woody’s Birthday

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Billy Bragg‘s worked so hard to breathe life into Woody Guthrie’s unfinished songs, and kept his rebel spirit alive through his entire career. So of course he’s not letting Guthrie’s centennial go unnoticed. He announced earlier this year that he and Wilco will be re-releasing their “Mermaid Avenue” albums, along with a new collection of Woody Guthrie songs recorded during the sessions.

Last week I heard rumblings about two Billy Bragg tributes to Woody at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk in June.

Just the tip of the iceberg; Bragg’s doing a short summer U.S. tour featuring his take on Guthrie’s songs, including the second night of the Woody Guthrie Free Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma on July 12, according to Bragg’s website and Slicing Up Eyeballs.

Appropriately, he’s calling it “The Ain’t Nobody That Can Sing Like Me Tour,” taking a line from Guthrie’s composition, “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key”. During our recent visit to Okemah, my friend Aimee and I entered the town singing the song’s first line: “I live in a place called Okfuskee,” a nod to Okemah’s county.

I’m planning to be at the Chicago and Okemah shows. Here’s the other places you can catch him:

Billy Bragg’s The Ain’t Nobody That Can Sing Like Me Tour:

June 22: Old Town School of Folk, Chicago, IL (According to Bragg’s site, he’ll also be playing the same venue on the next night.)
June 24: The Ark, Ann Arbor, MI
June 26: Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
June 28: Somerville Theatre, Somerville, MA
June 29: Stone Moutain Arts Center, Brownfield, ME
June 30: The Music Hall, Portsmouth, NH
July 1: Higher Ground, South Burlington, VT
July 10: Barrymore Theatre, Madison, WI
July 12: Okemah Festival, Okemah, OK
July 13: City Winery, New York, NY
July 15: Avalon Theatre, Easton, MD