Early on, coming out of Uncle Tupelo, there was the idea that Wilco was a Country band, or at least an alternative Country band. And there’s evidence to support that— “there have been elements of Country music in everything we’ve ever done,” says Jeff Tweedy. “We’ve never been particularly comfortable with accepting that definition, the idea that I was making Country music. But now, having been around the block a few times, we’re finding it exhilarating to free ourselves within the form, and embrace the simple limitation of calling the music we’re making Country.”
Cruel Country is almost entirely composed of live takes, with just a few overdubs. Everyone – Tweedy, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche, Mikael Jorgensen, Pat Sansone and Nels Cline – was in the room, playing together at The Loft in Chicago, unseparated by baffles. It’s a totally different way of making records that Wilco hasn’t used in years—maybe not since Sky Blue Sky. “It’s a style of recording that forces a band to surrender control and learn to trust each other, along with each others’ imperfections, musical and otherwise.” says Tweedy. “But when it’s working the way it’s supposed to, it feels like gathering around some wild collective instrument, one that requires six sets of hands to play.”
Across the record, there’s a loose conceptual narrative on the history of the United States. There’s almost a chronologically accurate portrait of America that comes out of the way that the record moves. “It isn’t always direct and easy to spot, but there are flashes of clarity,” says Tweedy. “It’s all mixed up and mixed in, the way my personal feelings about America are often woven with all of our deep collective myths. Simply put, people come and problems emerge. Worlds collide. It’s beautiful. And cruel.” Tweedy continues: “The specifics of an American identity begin to blur for me as the record moves toward the light and opens itself up to more cosmic solutions—coping with fear, without belonging to any nation or group other than humanity itself.”
Overall, Cruel Country is an album that doesn’t shy away from troubles, and there’s no denying that we’re still living in a very troubled time. “More than any other genre, Country music, to me, a white kid from middle-class middle America, has always been the ideal place to comment on what most troubles my mind—which for more than a little while now has been the country where I was born, these United States. And because it is the country I love, and because it’s Country music that I love, I feel a responsibility to investigate their mirrored problematic natures. I believe it’s important to challenge our affections for things that are flawed.”
“Country music is simply designed to aim squarely at the low-hanging fruit of the truth,” says Tweedy. “If someone can sing it, and it’s given a voice… well, then it becomes very hard not to see. We’re looking at it. It’s a cruel country, and it’s also beautiful. Love it or leave it. Or if you can’t love it, maybe you’ve already left.”
Philadelphia-based Dr. Dog has maintained their devotion to collaborative music-making for more than two decades. Known for their eclectic sound that shifts from soul to surf-rock to symphonic pop, the band has retired from regular touring and now limits their live performances to special one-off shows. Throughout their storied career, Dr. Dog has remained committed to their signature five-part harmonies and egalitarian approach to songwriting, staying true to their own creative instincts rather than chasing trends while creating soulful music that serves as a powerful tool for connection with their audience.
Dinosaur Jr. was founded in 1984 and the group emerged among the most highly regarded in alternative rock. By reintroducing volume and attack in his songs, Mascis shed the strict limitations of early 190s hardcore, becoming an influence on the burgeoning grunge movement. Mascis’ body of work continues to inspire a generation of guitar players and songwriters today. When the original line up of Mascis, Lou Barlow on bass, and drummer Murph re-formed in 2005 for select live dates, it was apparent that the years apart had not eroded any of their vitality. Restoring the sound established by the opening hat-trick gambit of ‘Dinosaur, You’re Living All Over Me,’ and ‘Bug,’ 2007’s ‘Beyond’ continued the band’s march into rock greatness by making old ears smile and new ears bleed afresh. The original lineup has now released five studio albums since their reunion, most recently 2021’s ‘Sweep It Into Space’ on Jagjaguwar Records.
No one paid too much attention when Jake Lenderman recorded Boat Songs, his third album released under his initials, MJ Lenderman. Before he cut it, after all, he was a 20-year-old guitarist working at an ice cream shop in his mountain hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, getting away for self-booked tours of his own songs or with the band he’d recently joined, Wednesday, whenever possible.
But as the pandemic took hold just as he turned 21, Lenderman—then making more money through state unemployment than he had ever serving scoops—enjoyed the sudden luxury of free time. Every day, he would read, paint, and write; every night, he and his roommates, bandmates, and best friends would drink and jam in their catawampus rental home, singing whatever came to mind over their collective racket. Some of those lines stuck around the next morning, slowly becoming 2021’s self-made Ghost of Your Guitar Solo and then 2022’s Boat Songs, recorded in a proper studio for a grand. With its barbed little jokes, canny sports references, and gloriously ragged guitar solos, Boat Songs became one of that year’s biggest breakthroughs, a ramshackle set of charms and chuckles. Much the same happened for Wednesday. Suddenly, people were paying a lot of attention to what Jake Lenderman might make next.
The answer is Manning Fireworks, recorded at Asheville’s Drop of Sun during multiple four-day stints whenever Lenderman had a break from the road. Coproducing it with pal and frequent collaborator Alex Farrar, Lenderman plays nearly every instrument here. It is not only his fourth full-length and studio debut for ANTI- but also a remarkable development in his story as an incredibly incisive singer-songwriter, whose propensity for humor always points to some uneasy, disorienting darkness. He wrote and made it with full awareness of the gaze Boat Songs had generated, how people now expected something great. Rather than wither, however, Lenderman used that pressure to ask himself what kind of musician he wanted to be—the funny cynic in the corner forever ready with a riposte or barbed bon mot, or one who could sort through his sea of cultural jetsam and one-liners to say something real about himself and his world, to figure out how he fits into all this mess?
He chose, of course, the latter. As a result, Manning Fireworks is an instant classic of an LP, his frank introspection and observation finding the intersection of wit and sadness and taking up residence there for 39 minutes. Yes, the punchlines are still here, as are the rusted-wire guitar solos that have made Lenderman a favorite for indie rock fans looking for an emerging guitar hero. (Speaking of solos, did you hear him leading his totally righteous band, the Wind, on his lauded live cassette last year? Wow.) But there’s a new sincerity, too, as Lenderman lets listeners clearly see the world through his warped lens, perhaps for the first time. “Please don’t laugh,” he deadpans during “Joker Lips,” a magnetic song about feeling pushed out by everyone else. “Only half of what I said was a joke.” Maybe you hear a tremble in his voice? That’s the frown behind the mask, finally slipping from Lenderman’s face.
Perhaps it’s a good moment, then, to tell you more about Lenderman, as a person. Though he is in fact a basketball zealot from North Carolina (and a former two guard who once dropped 10 threes in a game), MJ is not a reference to Michael Jordan. His name is actually Mark Jacob Lenderman. His parents are heads who were going to Bonnaroo when he was a baby and, as he admits, know more about modern music than he does. The second-to-youngest in a family of six, he was a childhood altar boy who went to Catholic school until he begged to go to public school to join the music program. Guitar Hero changed his life, leading him to obsessions with Jimi Hendrix and The Smashing Pumpkins. He began recording himself on his mom’s laptop in fifth grade after discovering My Morning Jacket’s roughshod early works, those lo-fi transmissions serving as some DIY semaphore. The lyrics started to come when he was a teenager.
No one paid too much attention to Lenderman when he was recording Boat Songs. And for a while there, the amount of attention he was getting as he made Manning Fireworks got in his head. But on the finale, “Bark at the Moon,” he is back in his childhood bedroom in a sleepy mountain tourist town, swearing off big cities or changing himself to suit anyone’s expectations. Instead, he’s playing Guitar Hero until the wee hours, a kid falling in love with rock music all over again. He lets out a playful howl, like the beast in that Ozzy hit. He and his friends then disappear for the next seven minutes, his guitar solo subsumed in a roaring drone that recalls the righteous Sonic Youth records that Lenderman loves, the ones made soon after he was born. It’s a joyous escape and an important moment. Lenderman is still sorting through the kinds of songs he wants to write and remembering they can go anywhere he wants—much like they did back at those late-night house jams, no matter who is now looking.
One of the hardest working singer-songwriters in the game is named Katie Crutchfield. She was born in Alabama, grew up near Waxahatchee Creek. Skipped town and struck out on her own as Waxahatchee. That was over a decade ago. Crutchfield says she never knew the road would lead her here, but after six critically acclaimed albums, she’s never felt more confident in herself as an artist. While her sound has evolved from lo-fi folk to lush alt-tinged country, her voice has always remained the same. Honest and close, poetic with Southern lilting. Much like Carson McCullers’s Mick Kelly, determined in her desires and convictions, ready to tell whoever will listen.
And after years of being sober and stable in Kansas City—after years of sacrificing herself to her work and the road—Crutchfield has arrived at her most potent songwriting yet. On her new album, Tigers Blood, Crutchfield emerges as a powerhouse—an ethnologist of the self—forever dedicated to revisiting her wins and losses. But now she’s arriving at revelations and she ain’t holding them back.
Crutchfield says that she wrote most of the songs on Tigers Blood during a “hot hand spell,” while on tour in the end of 2022. And when it came time to record, Crutchfield returned to her trusted producer Brad Cook, who brought her sound to a groundbreaking turning point on 2020’s Saint Cloud.
They hunkered down at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas—a border town known for cotton and pecans—and searched for another turn, waited for a sign. Initially, MJ Lenderman, Southern indie-rock wunderkind (much like Crutchfield when she started out) came to play electric guitar and sing on “Right Back To It.” But as soon as they tracked it, Cook told Lenderman he had to stay for the rest of the album. And he did.
While on a grueling, year-long tour with his band Geese, Cameron Winter recorded the bulk of his debut solo album in a succession of hotel room closets, singing into the built-in microphone on his MacBook. Staying awake for several days at a time to keep up with his band’s non-stop schedule, Winter’s newest work recalls creative mania in the depths of night. Often so exhausted that he would fall asleep in the middle of a take, the disparate tracks were sent to New York and organized painstakingly by producer Loren Humphrey into a mystical, imaginative piece of work.
Yo La Tengo’s uninterrupted 40-years-and-counting career is unparalleled in its creative breadth and refusal to rest on laurels. Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew have enjoyed success entirely on their own terms – playing the world’s best concert halls, museums, and dives, collaborating with everyone from Homer Simpson to Ray Davies, from Chris Elliott to Yoko Ono, portraying the Velvet Underground in I Shot Andy Warhol and composing scores for Adventureland and the films of Jean Painleve, and even creating a holiday tradition unto themselves with their series of Hanukkah shows at Hoboken, New Jersey’s legendary club Maxwell’s, from which they’ve donated hundreds of thousands to charity.
In addition to his countless musical accomplishments, the Wilco frontman and New York Times bestselling author is regarded as an astute and thoughtful writer who has also made an impact in the literary world. Tweedy’s previous bestsellers Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back) and How to Write One Song were both critically acclaimed and beloved by readers, expanding his legacy as one of America’s most admired performers and songwriters.
WORLD WITHIN A SONG is a disarming and heartening mix of memories, music, and inspiration built around the 50-plus songs that changed Tweedy’s life. He opens up about the real-life memories behind each song and what he’s learned about how music and life intertwine and enhance each other. In Tweedy’s own words, “I want to talk about songs that gave me permission to be creative, to be myself. To say something that was hard to say. I’ll be telling stories from my life, focusing on a true-to-memory style of how it really felt to me, how I experienced things emotionally. And then I want to talk about music in the same way. I want to talk about music in a way that it rarely gets talked about. I want to talk about the world within the song.”
Tweedy’s song choices cross genre and decade, including songs by The Replacements, Mavis Staples, The Velvet Underground, Joni Mitchell, Otis Redding, Dolly Parton, and Billie Eilish. He also shares his thoughts on his own songs and his ‘Rememories’ – short, often dream-like stories from his childhood and early years as a musician – which have been such a hit on Tweedy’s popular Substack, Starship Casual.
Fans, music lovers, and creatives of all types will find inspiration in Tweedy’s insightful blend of music and emotion in WORLD WITHIN A SONG.
The Jayhawks and their rootsy sound were definitely swimming against the tide when they emerged from a crowded Minnesota music scene in 1985. Over the course of almost 4 decades, 11 albums, countless memorable live shows and enough personal drama to fill a couple of Behind the Music episodes, this beloved band soared to heights few ever achieve while winning the hearts and minds of numerous critics, fans and peers in the process. After releasing two indie albums in the ’80s, The Jayhawks signed with American Recordings in 1991 and over the next decade released 5 challenging, at times groundbreaking, albums, toured the world to widespread acclaim and even survived the departure of founding member Mark Olson in 1995.
After a hiatus in the mid-2000s, the “classic” 1994 lineup reunited for another new studio album in 2011 and 2 years of solid touring, reacquainting audiences old and new with the band’s timeless musical vision. 2014 saw a late ’90s version of the band led by Gary Louris hitting the road to support the reissues of the 3 Jayhawks albums released from 1997–2003. This lineup released the band’s 9th studio album in 2016, recorded in Portland, OR with producers Peter Buck and Tucker Martine. The band’s next studio album, Back Roads and Abandoned Motels, was released in the summer of 2018, featuring Jayhawks versions of songs Gary Louris had previously written with other artists plus 2 new compositions. Recording for a new Jayhawks album was completed in Minnesota in late 2019 and in July 2020 the band released their 11th studio album, XOXO.
Actor/musician Michael Shannon and musician Jason Narducy started collaborating on shows in Chicago in 2014. They would pick an album, assemble musicians, and perform the album at a rock club. Some of the albums performed were Neil Young – Zuma, The Smiths – The Queen is Dead, and The Modern Lovers – Self-Titled. In 2023, they performed R.E.M.’s debut album, Murmur, and the reaction around the US inspired a tour in 2024. They toured R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction in 2025 and have plans to continue touring in 2026.
Known for her distinctive voice and singing style, “Valerie June’s every quiver bespeaks emotional honesty” (New Yorker). As a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and three-time Americana Music Honors and Awards nominee, June weaves fresh medicinal downloads of love, sweetness, goodness, and joy with songs that have flowed through her for years.
An author, poet, certified yoga and mindfulness meditation instructor, June honorably served as a Turnaround artist working with students for the President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities and continues serving through The Kennedy Center.
She has recorded three best-selling solo albums and written songs for legendary artists such as Mavis Staples and The Blind Boys of Alabama. She has been praised by Bob Dylan and shared the stage with myriad artists including John Prine, Norah Jones, Tyler Childers, Dinosaur Jr., Booker T. Jones, M. Ward, Robert Plant, Meshell Ndegeocello, Avett Brothers, Dave Matthews, Angelique Kidjo, Willie Nelson, Brandi Carlile, and Elvis Costello.
Her albums have been featured by numerous publications such as Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, NPR Music, Vogue, Elle, Mojo, Uncut, and many others, and she’s made television appearances on The Tonight Show, CBS Saturday Morning, PBS, Austin City Limits, BBC, and many more.
She splits her time between Tennessee and New York when she’s not touring.
Alynda Segarra is 36, or a little less than halfway through the average American lifespan. In that comparatively brief time, though, the Hurray for the Riff Raff founder has been something of a modern Huck Finn, an itinerant traveler whose adventures prompt art that reminds us there are always other ways to live.
Born in the Bronx and of Puerto Rican heritage, Segarra was raised there by a blue-collar aunt and uncle, as their father navigated Vietnam trauma and their mother neglected them to work for the likes of Rudy Giuliani. They were radicalized before they were a teenager, baptized in the anti-war movement and galvanized in New York’s punk haunts and queer spaces. At 17, Segarra split, becoming the kid in a communal squat before shuttling to California, where they began crisscrossing the country by hopping trains. They eventually found home—spiritual, emotional, physical—in New Orleans, forming a hobo band and realizing that music was not only a way to share what they’d learned and seen but to learn and see more. Hurray for the Riff Raff steadily rose from house shows to a major label, where Segarra became a pan-everything fixture of the modern folk movement. But that yoke became a burden, prompting Segarra to make the probing and poignant electronic opus, 2022’s Life on Earth, their Nonesuch debut. Catch your breath, OK? We’re back to 36, back to now.
The Autumn Defense is a collaboration between John Stirratt and Patrick Sansone, beginning in 1999, and spanning 6 records, most recently 2015’s “Fifth”. They are releasing their first album in 10 years, “Here and Nowhere”, on October 20th on Yep Roc records. Accompanied by their bandmates Greg (G Wiz) Wieczorek, and James (Hags) Haggerty, they’ll be performing new material at this year’s Sky Blue Sky festival.
Case Oats is the Chicago outfit led by Casey Gomez Walker. The band consists of Gomez Walker (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Spencer Tweedy (drums), Max Subar (guitar, pedal steel), Scott Daniel (fiddle), and Jason Ashworth (bass).
Emerging from Chicago’s vaunted music community, Case Oats began life seven years ago when Gomez Walker, a writer and poet with some experience in bands, met Tweedy, a seasoned drummer who has performed with Jeff Tweedy, Waxahatchee, Mavis Staples, and Norah Jones. Not long after meeting, they started writing songs together, and in the time since their formation, Case Oats have homed in on a lived-in sound that perfectly complements Gomez Walker’s lyrics which are wry and confessional and full-bodied.
How Long Gone feels like when you used to have friends. Assuming your friends were bicoastal elites, Chris Black and Jason Stewart. And they welcomed you to silently join them as they ushered in a parade of guests – playwright Jeremy O. Harris, musician Phoebe Bridgers, actress Hari Nef – to chop it up three times a week. Did you ever laugh with your friends like that?
The guests of How Long Gone come from media, fashion, literature, music, and business – a common throughline isn’t immediately obvious. But each guest – Tavi Gevinson, Mickey Drexler, Faye Webster, Bowen Yang, and many more – are tied together after they surrender to the bedrock charm of the show. As the unscriptable rapport between Chris and Jason seeps into the guests, conversations bloom and take on a life of their own. It’s an honest exchange happening. There is a lot of humor, nothing is sacred. It’s revealing, it’s intimate, it’s engaging – it’s everything you want to happen in a real conversation.
How Long Gone is a podcast that was created out of pandemic boredom by two old friends. Chris was in New York and Jason was in Los Angeles. Most of these details remain accurate, but what How Long Gone has become is much more than it was in its infancy. They set out to make a podcast and ended up creating a cosmos instead. As Chris told Vogue, the greatest reward is “creating a universe of interesting and engaging people who just want to come together to have a good time.”
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