Tweedy and Friends — 25 June 2017, North Adams, MA (Joe's Field [Solid Sound Festival; Day 3 of 3])

[eckythump]

Tweedy

Hazel

Fake Fur Coat

Diamond Light

Flowering

Summer Noon

World Away

New Moon

Love Like A Wire (Diane Izzo cover)

Low Key

 

Jeff Solo

Laminated Cat

Normal American Kids

New Madrid

Remember The Mountain Bed

Born Alone

A Shot In The Arm

 

"I've got a couple of things to say before I bring everybody back out. One is, I went to see Jonathan Richman and he talked about going to a truck stop somewhere and seeing a sign in the truck stop that said 'everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about, so be kind always'. And I did a little research, apparently Plato said that first, and people keep saying it over time and for a long time that phrase has been coming up and we need to keep telling each other that because we still haven't gotten good at it. There's a lot of things in this world that are really upsetting to me right now, but it's also made me try to be kinder than I've ever been in my life, and if that can translate into that, I know we're going to be better than ever soon, so be kind always, be kind to everybody, try and understand they're fighting a battle that you know nothing about. Alright, having said that, I really hate Trump ok. He's not even worth mentioning, he's a sick old man. But anyway, what I really wanted to say is how kind I am, how friendly I am. There's actually one other thing I wanted to say and it shouldn't be the last thing said at this festival but once again there are so many people that make this thing an incredibly special event, and there are way too many people to mention that I would trust my feeble brain to remember to thank but Mass Moca for sure deserves a round of applause, everybody in our crew, Tony Magarhita management, all of the vendors, all of the volunteers, the city of North Adams. I've been to a lot of festivals, and I know that I'm biased, but I love this festival and i'm happy that we get to share this with each other. What I was saying last night about inspiring each other, that's the thing that always reminds me of when I see my band mates, other bands and other things that happen here is that is the greatest gift in my life that I've managed to be in a band with a bunch of guys that inspire me, and make music that inspires me, and I think that's a good thing to share with the world, that we can all do that for each other. I certainly feel very fortunate to have that. So thank you everybody, and now we're going to bring everybody back out and sing a song all about it"

 

Tweedy

Friendship (Pop Staples cover, Sima Cunningham on lead vocals, with Kacy from Kacy and Clayton on backing vocals)

Only The Lord Knows (Mavis Staples cover)

The Losing End (Neil Young cover)

Military Madness (Graham Nash cover, Sammy Tweedy on lead vocals, with Julian Lage on guitar)

California Stars (ensemble featuring Nels Cline, Mikael Jorgensen, John Stirratt, Kacy and Clayton)

Give Back The Key To My Heart (Doug Sahm cover, ensemble featuring those above plus Pat Sansone, Glenn Kotche, Julian Lage)

 

Encore

I Shall Be Released (Bob Dylan/The Band cover, ensemble with all previous and Sammy Tweedy)

 

 

What a fun and incredible way to end 3 days of an amazing festival. I'll write some more later, hoping others there share their thoughts as well. If a recording doesn't surface in the meantime, I recorded it and it sounds really good, and will share it when I'm back in Australia next week.

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta

 

Not so much a banter corner as a banter buttress. (Was going to write quoin* but alliteration always wins).

 

There was a nice episode of Mastertapes covering Songs for Beginners. Mr Nash came across as a really nice guy.

 

* New word of the day

[bböp]

Ta

 

Not so much a banter corner as a banter buttress. (Was going to write quoin* but alliteration always wins).

 

There was a nice episode of Mastertapes covering Songs for Beginners. Mr Nash came across as a really nice guy.

 

* New word of the day

Banter buttress is right. Thanks for the report. I guess I should forget about scrawling down notes and then trying to decipher my chicken scratch and just move into the digital age already!

 

Future show transcripts will commence in 3, 2, 1...

[worldrecordplayer]

What a beautiful Sunday afternoon on Joe's Field, and another great finish to an excellent SS weekend. The weather, the music, the art, the crowd, Wilco of course, all came together for a fantastic time. I thought the installations at MASS MoCA were awesome, maybe the best overall museum experience I've had at any of the 5 SS's. Onward. 

[dagwave]

Wow.

The perfect end to a perfect weekend.

Lighting out for home in the next hour with a big fat smile.

[H.Stone]

A beautiful, emotional conclusion to the weekend.

 

First, Sima Cunningham -- whoa! She really nailed that Pops Staples song. I didn't know she had that voice in her. Beautiful! That's also when the set took a very emotional turn for me followed by Sammy Tweedy making his SS debut with Military Madness. I've only seen Sammy sing a couple of times, but they've been so good and earnest and focused. He's clearly reluctant to be center stage, but he was great. I vote for more Sammy (in literary shirts). And watching him share a mic with Jeff? Too much. I really really wish he had taken a verse on I Shall Be Released.

 

Spencer wearing the Raised on Wilco shirt cracked me up. At one point someone in the crowd said he "only loves Spencer" to which Jeff repled, "That was hurtful." And then, "Fuck, man."

[bböp]

Tweedy

Hazel

Fake Fur Coat

Diamond Light

Flowering

World Away

New Moon

Love Like A Wire (Diane Izzo cover)

Low Key

 

Not to be the setlist police, but it looks like you omitted Summer Noon from the one you posted; it was between Flowering and World Away, fwiw. I'm sure I've inadvertently left out a song myself at some point, but figured it was worth noting here. Also, not as major, but I also find it worthwhile with Tweedy sets to note which songs Sima is out there for. In this case, she also joined the band on Love Like A Wire and Low Key (as well as the entire post-Jeff solo portion).

 

A beautiful, emotional conclusion to the weekend.

 

First, Sima Cunningham -- whoa! She really nailed that Pops Staples song. I didn't know she had that voice in her. Beautiful! That's also when the set took a very emotional turn for me followed by Sammy Tweedy making his SS debut with Military Madness. I've only seen Sammy sing a couple of times, but they've been so good and earnest and focused. He's clearly reluctant to be center stage, but he was great. I vote for more Sammy (in literary shirts). And watching him share a mic with Jeff? Too much. I really really wish he had taken a verse on I Shall Be Released.

 

Spencer wearing the Raised on Wilco shirt cracked me up. At one point someone in the crowd said he "only loves Spencer" to which Jeff repled, "That was hurtful." And then, "Fuck, man."

 

Meant to reply to this a couple of days ago, but yeah...Sima on Friendship! She nailed that one. We didn't get to hear her sing lead when they played it at Eaux Claires the previous weekend because Phil Cook took the lead vox, but I love Sima's voice so that was great that she got to do that. (Have I mentioned she does a mean Jesus Wept?)

 

Anyway, and then Sammy taking the lead on Military Madness...so, so good. I definitely second the "more Sammy" vote, and hope he'll continue to do some more singing in the future, whether it's with his dad and brother or his own projects. On that note, what do we have to do to get some more Racoonists material out there? (Also, have we established whether it's Racoonists or Raccoonists yet...because we need to.)

 

One other great (to me, at least) moment that I haven't seen mentioned yet was when Jeff started to flub a verse on Born Alone during his solo set. That's not the easiest song to rescue lyrically, but apparently enough people were singing along that he managed to get through it relatively unscathed. Afterward, he quipped, "That's the least alone I've ever felt."

 

What a fun set to close out the weekend, even if Jeff had warned us early on that they had played the same festival-closing slot two years earlier and didn't have any new songs, "so lay off." He added that he already had to learn a bunch of songs for the festival, presumably referring to all the Being There original arrangements, etc., so I'm sure he would've liked to change up this set a bit. But it was more than fine. The only thing I wished there had been was maybe a few more collaborations with other artists the way there had been during the 2015 set when folks like Luluc and the Felice Brothers and Cibo Matto each came out for different songs (although I quite enjoyed the little dance party that CM's Yuka C. Honda was leading on stage at the end this year along with Julian Lage and Margaret Glaspy).

[eckythump]

Ah yes summer noon my mistake! Was clearly going through the audio recording too quickly. Wilcos Facebook people must have used this because they're missing it too. I have updated my original post. Sorry internet

[worldrecordplayer]

Yuka's dance party was great!

[chisoxjtrain]

A beautiful, emotional conclusion to the weekend.

 

First, Sima Cunningham -- whoa! She really nailed that Pops Staples song. I didn't know she had that voice in her. Beautiful! That's also when the set took a very emotional turn for me followed by Sammy Tweedy making his SS debut with Military Madness. I've only seen Sammy sing a couple of times, but they've been so good and earnest and focused. He's clearly reluctant to be center stage, but he was great. I vote for more Sammy (in literary shirts). And watching him share a mic with Jeff? Too much. I really really wish he had taken a verse on I Shall Be Released.

 

Spencer wearing the Raised on Wilco shirt cracked me up. At one point someone in the crowd said he "only loves Spencer" to which Jeff repled, "That was hurtful." And then, "Fuck, man."

 

Went to high school with Sima, she's good people.