John Stirratt interview

[froggie]

but i had it sent to me today..

 

 

http://blog.nola.com/keithspera/2009/05/wi...t_hits_all.html

 

 

Wilco's John Stirratt hits all the right notes in return to his old stomping grounds

Posted by Keith Spera, Music writer, The Times-Picayune May 16, 2009 4:00AM

SCOTT THRELKELD / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE ARCHIVE

Jeff Tweedy of Wilco performs before a huge crowd at the Gentilly Stage at the 2009 Jazz Fest.

 

As a New Orleans native and Jazz Fest veteran, Wilco bassist John Stirratt knew which temptation to avoid prior to the band's April 25 set at the Fair Grounds: the Natchitoches meat pies.

 

"I was waylaid by a meat pie before we played in 2005," Stirratt said, calling from his Chicago home days after the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Presented by Shell. "It was not a good thing to play rock in the daytime with some of that food weighing you down."

 

Stirratt was born in New Orleans and grew up in Mandeville. He first attended Jazz Fest as a Mandeville High School student in the mid-1980s.

 

"I remember it being kind of quaint," he said. "It sounds a little cliche, but... the food has always been stellar to me. It's a given that in New Orleans as much attention would be paid to that as the music. It provides more of a complete experience that is evocative of New Orleans."

 

Stirratt attended the University of Mississippi in Oxford and played in a garage rock band called the Hilltops. His career took off in the early 1990s after he joined the final incarnation of St. Louis alt-country band Uncle Tupelo. When Uncle Tupelo disbanded, Stirratt signed on with singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy's new project, Wilco.

 

Wilco's only remaining original members are New Orleans native John Stirratt, third from the right from the left, and Jeff Tweedy, second from the right from the left.

 

Fifteen years later, Tweedy and Stirratt are Wilco's only remaining original members. Wilco, the subject of both a book and a documentary, has built a mainstream audience while maintaining its critical bona fides. It is both a Band That Matters and a band that sells tickets and albums.

 

Stirratt lived Uptown until he moved to Wilco's Chicago home base in 1999. The day before the band's Jazz Fest set, he sipped coffee in the French Quarter and drove by his old apartments.

 

A dozen relatives accompanied him to the Fair Grounds on April 25. Early in the afternoon, Rolling Stone senior writer David Fricke interviewed him at the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage. Thirty minutes before showtime, his family left him with his bandmates backstage at the Gentilly Stage.

 

Wilco's music ranges from quiet, meandering passages to full-bore guitar romps. Previous Wilco rosters have not always adapted well to outdoor shows.

 

"For years, we were sort of challenged as a daytime festival band," Stirratt said. "There's so much quiet material and so much dynamic, it didn't always translate well when you had someone like Franz Ferdinand, which is four on the floor, across the festival grounds. But this lineup -- six members is the largest ensemble we've had -- has been able to provide a compelling live set."

 

Tweedy compiled a set list for Jazz Fest that drew from seven Wilco albums. Tweedy "is quite good at that aspect of it, (considering) whether the crowd has alcohol or not, whether it's a seated crowd or standing crowd," Stirratt said. "There's definitely an art to it. And when we're able to provide any sort of soul or funk sensibility in New Orleans, we do our best."

 

The musicians did not showcase anything from their forthcoming "Wilco (The Album)," due out June 30 but already streaming on the band's Web site. "It's always cringe-inducing to see a band preview tunes before a festival crowd," Stirratt said.

 

At the Gentilly Stage, Wilco faced a sea of humanity studded with homemade flags and totems. Tweedy was momentarily distracted by one Jazz Fest fan dressed as a leprechaun and waving a banner adorned with what appeared to be pork chops. Stirratt spotted the same bewildering vision. He "looked like the mascot for the Fighting Irish," Stirratt said. "I don't know what that has to do with a pork chop."

 

Upon further reflection, he recalled the leprechaun shouting that his flag depicted a ginger-colored mustache.

 

"But it looked like two pieces of bacon to me. He didn't have (a mustache), so I don't know what it means. Very cryptic, the whole thing."

 

In Stirratt's estimation, Wilco's Jazz Fest set "had a certain energy that we haven't always had, even on an outdoor stage. The weather was great; the crowd was great. And it was the final show of the tour, so that had a lot to do with it.

 

"It was really successful, a nice sort of funny energy going on. I don't mean to bring up the cowbell player, but

[hawthorne]

>"It's always cringe-inducing to see a band preview tunes before a festival crowd," Stirratt said.

 

Wilco have done that.

[mpolak21]

"She finally put it together what I do, and what these guys she always hangs out with all do. She said, 'Band, band!'"

 

A very good one, at that.

 

 

. Awesome.

 

--Mike

[Wilco Worshipper]

"It is both a Band That Matters and a band that sells tickets and albums." - My favorite part.

 

 

Someone I didn't even know (a friend of a friend of a friend) sent me this article the other day too.

 

I love how people take care of my Wilco fixes

[Wendy]

I don't think I read this before, so thanks froggie for posting it. Nice.