On this bonus episode, Mary and Meredith comment on the recent goings-on of the Wilcoverse, share future plans for the podcast, and thank some folks (even you!)
(Theme music fades in: guitar strumming, slide guitar glides in. Music fades out as the co-hosts Mary MacLane Mellas and Meredith Hobbs Coons begin to speak.)
Meredith: Hi, Mary.
Mary: Hi, Meredith.
Meredith: How's it going across the computer screen?
Mary: It's going good.
Meredith: Last time we recorded this. We were at your house where you were living at the time. But now you're in a new place.
Mary: I am. I got married. Now. I live in the Bay Area. I was living much closer to Meredith and now I live much farther from Meredith. Sadly. But I visit you know, because, you know, got family up that way.
Meredith: (Singing) "You've got family out there." Yeah?
Mary: (Laughs) there you go!
Meredith: We just listened to that song.
Mary: Yup. We're in different rooms this time versus when we recorded the first season of Wilco Will Love You. We were in the same room. It was 2019! Now it's 2021!
Meredith: Yeah.
Mary: (Laughs) or was it early 2020? It was early 2020.
Meredith: Was it?
Mary: It was like between that time.
Meredith: Ooh, it was. Mhmm.
Mary: So we were like planning in 2019, recorded in 2020, right before... everything. A lot has happened.
Meredith: A lot has happened. A lot has happened with Wilco, too.
Mary: They are back on the road very soon.
Meredith: Because one thing that happened was... they canceled tour dates, as all bands did, including one that you had planned to attend.
Mary: So their "Ode to Joy" tour got cut in half. I think they maybe did a couple- a few dates. And I had tickets for... Santa Rosa, up here in the Bay Area, because I knew I was moving up here-
Meredith: -mhmm-
Mary: -and that got canceled, and then they didn't rebook that date, sadly, but they did rebook- they did book a new show in Napa. So that's like, also close to me. So I just got tickets to see them in Napa, at the Oxbow river stage, which I've heard is a really cool venue. So- and this one is cool, because the other one was assigned seating. And I actually prefer standing room venues, because you can kind of get as close as you want, and then you can go back, and you can go close again.
Meredith: Right.
Mary: So I'm excited to kind of have the opportunity to like be close for a little bit, but then, like, have the good sound in the back.
Meredith: Mhmm.
Mary: Because that's really the better way to see shows, but it's like you don't really feel like you're there unless you're like up close for at least a little bit. So...
Meredith: Right. You can get some pretty hi fi experience just being at your house... listening to it.
Mary: Yeah. Oh, definitely. Yeah.
Meredith: Mhmm (laughs) that's not really the purpose of attending a live show. It's more for the presence element.
Mary: Yeah. So I'm really looking forward to it. You know, it's in October. So it'll just be like a beautiful Napa evening, seeing Wilco.
Meredith: That'll be lovely.
Mary: You know, got the insurance just in case, because we know, with like, shows getting canceled again. But you know, I have a good feeling that this is going to happen. And it'll be my first time seeing Wilco since like, 2011.
Meredith: Wow.
Mary: So it's been a while. Seeing them live. So I'm really looking forward to it.
Meredith: I'm looking forward to you getting to attend. I feel like I'm not at the point right now where I am comfortable buying any tickets to any concerts.
Mary: Understandable.
Meredith: Yeah. I am not there yet- I'm playing a concert outdoors soon.
Mary: Yeah.
Meredith: But playing one that I know will likely be sparsely attended, let's be real, um (laughs) outside, versus one that many people wish to attend... it's just a little bit different for me. Everyone has their own... degree of comfort about branching out right now, I think.
Mary: Most definitely.
Meredith: In the past we've made an effort to contain any dated references, but I'm just diving right into them this time (laughs).
Mary: Sets the stage for this first season, how we're moving forward, which is really cool.
Meredith: That's right. We were... getting into a little bit about what Wilco has been up to... and I feel like we can't really talk about what Wilco has been up to without getting into the Tweedy Show....
Mary: I was just thinking about that.
Meredith: Which has just been... phenomenal.
Mary: Such an amazing thing.
Meredith: When we were talking, in those conversations that were recorded earlier and released more recently, we were talking about how Jeff Tweedy involves his family so much in his writing and in his interviews he's given and things like that. And it was a really special thing that they were all up for sharing their lives in that way with us through the Tweedy Show. And making everybody part of the family by adopting the "clients?" It's just really special, all the charity work that has arisen from that, all of the- the different efforts that the clients have taken on, there was an album of covers released, there's a union (laughs) where you pay dues to give to charities on behalf of the Tweedys, the common interest in the Tweedys and Wilco. It's a special group.
Mary: Really special. And just, like, to have this amazing songwriter opened up his home to his fans like that, and his family, was just really special. Like, there were a few other artists that did regular live streams, like I know Gary Louris from the Jayhawks did and a few other people. But there was something really special about the Tweedy Show. And you know, they have the theme song, and involving the whole family, and seeing how Sammy and Spencer have been, like, such a huge part of Jeff's musical life now... has just been really, really cool. And it's still going on. So- and I imagine when touring starts again, that's probably not going to happen so often. I hope they just keep doing it whenever they can, but to, you know, have them do it, it was like at least three nights a week. I think at the beginning, it was almost every night, they were doing a live show. There were some amazing covers that we would have never heard him do.
Meredith: It's been a really- a really magical and generous thing.
Mary: Mhmm.
Meredith: I'm very grateful for that. And getting to see all of the- the stuff in their house. The account title- "stuff in our house." It's some phenomenal stuff.
Mary: Sue has just a great eye for stuff like that.
Meredith: Yeah. Truly. What else? They've done- they've introduced members of the family that way. Nels had an album during the pandemic!
Mary: Yes.
Meredith: Nels Cline Singers.
Mary: That's right.
Meredith: And I know, Pat Sansone was involved in some... projects, producing them or-
Mary: -yeah, definitely-
Meredith: -contributing to them.
Mary: I think everybody kind of, you know, had little creative projects that they were doing, and it's- it's very inspiring to see because I personally felt like, kind of not so creative during this time.
Meredith: Mhmm.
Mary: But there are other people like- even you, Meredith, have been doing your Single Song Shows, and it's been really cool to see other people that have gotten really creative with adapting to more of the virtual space. So that's been really cool to see. And it's, I mean, it's inspired me, not necessarily to do my own version of it, but I just love seeing that my favorite musicians and my favorite artists are still, like, making the best of the situation and using that opportunity. Because I mean, like, I guess we were talking about Pat, it seems like he's been doing a lot of photography. And it's been really neat to see that work. And the- I think John and his family started like a hotel not that long ago? And I'm sure that that's been kind of, like, not going so much during the pandemic, but I'm sure they've still been hard at work.
Meredith: Yeah, that's interesting. I didn't- I guess I didn't follow that news. That's cool.
Mary: Yeah, I think it's called Tourists Welcome.
Meredith: Oh, right.
Mary: Yeah.
Meredith: Now it sounds familiar.
Mary: But it started, I think, like at the end of 2019, I want to say? So you know, they all have other things going on. And it's really cool to see.
Meredith: We can't forget the book, How to Write One Song.
Mary: How to Write One Song.
Meredith: Which is really fun, even as someone who's been writing songs for a long time, some of the exercises were familiar to me, and some were not. And even my dad who's, you know, an- an older gentleman, um (laughs), in his... 60s, he's been writing songs since he was a teenager. And he's been sort of circling back to it periodically, as he's been experiencing a surge of creativity in his own little garage studio lately. It's been cool.
Mary: That's awesome. Yeah. So, you know, lots of good things came out of this year, even though it was not what we expected. But I think it's kind of cool, because a lot of these musicians have to tour to make a living, tour is really the only way that musicians make a living now, it's not selling albums anymore. This has been a very rare opportunity to see what musicians would do if they didn't have to tour, like, eight months out of the year.
Meredith: Right.
Mary: That's been really cool. So seeing them delve into other types of creative work or music projects that are just done with the people that they live with, like Jeff did. You know, it's been really cool.
Meredith: It's a very hopeful thing. And I think that artists are often inspired to... inspire hope people in whatever way they can. And so I think that many people sort of rose to the occasion, when all of this was happening, to just try to do their part as an artist, too sort of provide that for people.
Mary: Yeah. And the cool thing about going back to the Tweedy Show is I feel like it kind of, like, made a sense of community, kind of like amongst Wilco fans and people who know the Tweedies. And that was, I think, the coolest thing about the Tweedy Show is that it created a little community. And we kind of touched on that with like, what's come out of it, but it was kind of like this little beacon of hope and community for people when many of them were isolated and didn't have that in person.
Meredith: Absolutely. And I've seen many people on the Shot in the Arm Facebook group supporting one another through life milestones and other personal challenges. It's just been really cool.
Mary: Wilco fans are awesome (laughs). Like, it just says a lot about the members of Wilco themselves that their fans are just like genuinely caring and like really awesome people. The fan base as a whole, I think has a reputation of just being, like, good people.
Meredith: Oh, yeah, for sure. Speaking of fans, there is another Wilco podcast now we are not alone in the Wilcoverse as we had thought and as we had hinted at when we recorded these "Ode to Joy" episodes when we did. So, it's called ABC Wilco, Alpha Bravo Charlie.
Mary: Yes.
Meredith: Yeah. "The alphabetical Wilco."
Mary: And they've been around for a while, I think. They do what we kind of did for "Ode to Joy," where we went song by song, but they go song by song in the Wilco catalog alphabetically, which is so cool. And, you know, I think they're only up to like the I's or something? It's like... I forgot where they are exactly.
Meredith: I think they're on L now.
Mary: Are they on L?
Meredith: Yeah, the last episode that I saw- because they post twice a week- and the last episode I saw, I think, was "Leave Me Like You Found Me?"
Mary: Okay.
Meredith: I could be off by a few. But anyway, it's cool. We were saying that there need to be all kinds different perspectives on Wilco.
Mary: Yeah.
Meredith: The Wilco fan base is expansive.
Mary: And you know, we want to take a different approach for the rest of our podcast.
Meredith: Right.
Mary: We weren't so much wanting to go a song by song, but we wanted to be more of a topical podcast, and have guests, and, um, just kind of talk in general. Every conversation is going to kind of start at Wilco or end at Wilco, but it's not necessarily going to be about Wilco. I think we've talked about before how, like, the reach and influence of Wilco is pretty expansive, and they've toured with a lot of different artists, they've discovered a lot of different artists and we want to talk to them, we want to talk to their fans. We don't want to make the Wilco world small, we want to make it really big. Because it is really big.
Meredith: That's right. And we have some guests in mind who have some unique experiences surrounding Wilco. We have a mutual friend who's a journalist, and we got to talk to him.
Mary: So we're excited to eventually release that episode. And you know, we have other people- we have friends we want to talk to, we're going to reach out to, you know, hopefully people that work with Wilco, Wilco themselves, like, bands that have toured with them. And you know, we'd love to talk to other fans. And that just goes back to, like, you're welcome to email us anytime. And if you're like, "Hey, I have a cool story about Wilco," maybe we can even have you on, do a little spot. So- we want this to be a really creative podcast and a really open form type of podcast, it's not necessarily going to be song reviews every episode. We definitely will do that style of episode again, I'm sure, if we want to- have a particular song that we want to talk about, but it won't necessarily be like a track by track like we just did.
Meredith: Right. Exactly. I think that we have always sort of had the intention of... setting this up to have conversations. Even the earliest ones that we ended up releasing, we're really emphasizing that as sort of our mission and what we were most interested in doing. So I'm looking forward to getting some episodes out there that do just that.
Mary: Exactly. And like our first season, I felt like, was us having conversations, establishing our style of talking to each other and our rapport, which I think was really important, maybe, you know, before we bring guests on, to be able to like- Okay, this is how we interact, this is how people are going to see us interact, and now we get to use that to go forward and talk to other people. So I think it's really important actually, the way we did this up first.
Meredith: Right. We forged our friendship through Wilco (laughs). That was how that went.
Mary: Yes.
Meredith: Because we knew each other, and we were friends- obviously, or we (laughing) wouldn't have want to do this. But it was more the type of thing where we'd see each other at things and we would chat then, or we'd reach out occasionally on social media. And through doing this podcast, we got to spend more time together, we got to talk about our childhoods, (laughing) we got to talk about of kinds of influences. Now, since doing this podcast, you've been one of the most consistent people that I've spoken with during the pandemic through our Zoom-based (laughing) bad documentary watch club- bad music documentary watch club.
Mary: And that's been really fun to have kind of a lighthearted- you know, I feel like that's our approach with this podcast as well, as we're not like super gnarly Wilco fans who are just like, got all our facts straight and, like, all that. We watched, like bad, like poorly made, (laughs) I guess, music documentaries together with a couple other- few other friends and... because we all love music, but it's also just fun to, like, laugh at ourselves, and at how ridiculous this world is sometimes with people taking themselves too seriously. And... I don't think Wilco makes themselves to be as ridiculous as some of these bands that we've been learning about. You know, we're just- we're here having fun. And just, like, talking. That's really what it's about.
Meredith: Right. It's kind of more a specific era of rock musician (laughs) that we end up circling back to over and over again.
Mary: Yes.
Meredith: A generation with less self awareness. (laughs) than, say, the members of Wilco have.
Mary: Indeed.
Meredith: So let's see... There- oh! My goodness! We didn't talk about "Love is the King!"
Mary: I knew there was something! Because I was like, wait, there was another Jeff al- there-like- an album came out!
Meredith: So good. I have learned "Save It For Me" as a cover, because I love it SO much. I love the harmonies that Sammy sings on it. And Spencer I think? Do they both sing on that album? I know definitely Sammy. And Spencer definitely drums on it.
Mary: Yeah, I'm not entirely sure who's singing what, but kind of just goes back to that, like, how much we've loved seeing Sammy and Spencer being on the Tweedy Show, and now we're like hearing them on Jeff's solo work, which is really cool.
Meredith: Right. And I love that... the song "A Robin or a Wren" was co written in part- I think he just contributed one line- but George Saunders is a co write on that one, which I love! I love that they're friends, I love that Jeff Tweedy contributed one of the voices for the audio book of Lincoln in the Bardo. And when I finally decided to buy myself a Wilco shirt just recently, I went for the one with the fox on it, because it was sort of a co-shout-out to George Saunders, who wrote the book Fox 8, and Wilco at the same time.
Mary: So awesome.
Meredith: And speaking of other Tweedy friends, he did his virtual book tour with Nick Offerman interviewing him, and then also with Norah Jones interviewing him, and we attended the Nick Offerman one- my partner and I.
Mary: Oh, you did!
Meredith: Yeah, it was so sweet! Nick Offerman was talking about how Jeff Tweedy has helped him write his own songs and will come in with melodic ideas and things. And... he was saying that he- (laughs) he's always disappointed on the- that he has to sing it, that the demo is his favorite singer ever, who's also one of his best friends, and then he has to record it with his own voice.
Mary: Yeah, the collaborations are really great. Really, really great. And it was cool because, you know, um, Conan O'Brien just retired as a late night host, and Wilco posted about Conan's show- his show in the 90s was like the original show that Wilco- it was either Wilco or Uncle Tupelo- but it was like our first late night appearance... was on Conan. So. That was really- another connection.
Meredith: Yeah. And on the Tweedy Show, on Conan's last night on air, Jeff actually went through chronologically and played every song he's ever played on Conan, which was really really sweet. And Conan has been recording his shows from the- not The Loft (laughs)- from the Largo in LA, and the person who owns or manages the Largo they call Flanny, and, um, he was there! He was watching the Tweedy Show.
Mary: Oh, that's so cool!
Meredith: It's pretty fun.
Mary: I looked it up just because I wanted to make sure we represented them accurately: the latest episode of ABC Wilco [at the time of recording] is "Less Than You Think." So you are right. They are in the Ls. 94.
Meredith: Yeah, and "Less Than You Think-" I'm surprised I didn't remember that, because that is the song where Jeff Tweedy sought specifically to recreate the sensation of a migraine with the instrumentals (laughs) at the end. And I saw that that was the episode that they'd posted and had a conversation with somebody about how I still can't with the end (laughing) of that song, because I get migraines!
Mary: Oh, so good.
Meredith: Did we cover it all?
Mary: I think we did. You know, just I think, um... you know, just so people know, we do have plans for future episodes, we're changing up our format a little bit, but we'll still be here, hopefully doing some interviews and kind of taking more of a deep dive into thematic elements of Wilco, and just talking about the Wilcoverse. As wide as it is, we won't ever cover it all, so it's- it's great to have so much material to work with. Um, but you know, I think the next thing that we should do is just, like, thank a few people that made our first season possible.
Meredith: Yeah, we do have some people to thank. We have Greta Stromquist, who has been editing this for us and doing a really excellent job. We're really grateful for that, because it would have been a lot to (laughs) take on with everything else that was happening, and she's so efficient with it, and really has a- a good ear for dialogue editing. So thank you, Greta.
Mary: Yep. And we have Portola Studios, who happens to be my dad (laughs). He loaned us the space to record our first 11 episodes, and we're really thankful. Loaned us mikes, all that stuff, and really, you know, helped us get going on this project.
Meredith: He is awesome, and now collaborating with my dad, which is exciting, mixing some songs for him. The dads! We're going to have a dad episode. It's just gonna happen.
Mary: And the Dad episode I think it's gonna be in my favorite episode.
Meredith: It's gonna be really special. And then we also want to thank our pal Adam Nash for the theme music.
Mary: And teaching me the word guitarmony.
Meredith: (Laughs).
Mary: Because I love that word now.
Meredith: Yeah. Thanks, Adam, for that. I've been using it a lot more to since you threw it into that episode, courtesy of Adam. So thanks, Adam, from me, too.
Mary: Thank you, Adam. And yeah, our theme music is just so chill and awesome. And it's very Wilco-esque. So, he did a great job.
Meredith: Yeah. And thanks to you, Mary:!
Mary: Thank you, Meredith! You're the one who came up to me. I think it was at like, the brewery in SLO that moved. We were either at the Siren or Bang the Drum. And Meredith came up to me and she was like, "We should do a Wilco podcast." I'm so, so thankful that she thought of me and thought Mary: would be a good person to do a Wilco podcast with, because now here we are. We actually did it.
Meredith: Oh, the main goal was getting to talk to you! (Laughs) Because I just always loved whenever we would get to chatting about Wilco. It was always so fun, and you're always so knowledgeable about it. And I was thinking that it would be a really great way to experiment with podcasting as an art form just getting to bond with you. So (laughs) that's why it happened.
Mary: Definitely. And it's been amazing, you know, just to like, grow in our friendship, and... It's been really cool to watch you, Meredith, because you have been growing in your abilities as an engineer, and working with sound and editing, and then also just like figuring out the whole, like, "how do we even get a podcast out there?" So you have done all of the major legwork into actually getting this podcast onto the internet, into people's ears. So I have you to thank for that. It's been amazing. All the work you've done. And I just feel like I'm along for the ride. And it's like so amazing to watch. You and Greta are just like awesome lady engineers that are making awesome content (laughs), and it's really cool!
Meredith: Aww well, thank you. I would say Greta more so than me on the editing front (laughs). I'm still quite the newbie there. But thank you so much, Mary:. That means a lot.
Mary: Of course.
Meredith: Alright. Wow! What a sweet little note to... end on, like a little metta meditation of sorts.
Mary: Gratefulness! Being grateful for each other and for our listeners! Thank you, listeners-
Meredith: -yes!-
Mary: -for listening to us, without having any idea what you're getting yourself into (laughs).
Meredith: Thank you so much.
Mary: This has been really fun.
Meredith: It has been really fun. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have.
Mary: Indeed. And I hope you're looking forward to new episodes that will be, you know, a little different from this first season, but I think more exciting and... there's just good things to come.
Meredith: Alright then! You can follow us on Instagram, @wwlypodcast, to find out when we're releasing the next season, and if you have something to share or questions, comments... you can email us at wwlypodcast@gmail.com.
Mary: And if you'd like to be involved, like, having a conversation with us, we'd love to talk to you. No shame in suggesting yourself as a guest. We're just really looking to talk to anyone who has any interest in Wilco, and/or side projects of Wilco. Don't hesitate.
Meredith: Send us an audio file, if you've got something to say.
Mary: Yeah. Play something during an episode, like a comment or a question. And we'd also really appreciate some reviews, that goes a long way in terms of getting this podcast out there.
Meredith: That's right. And check out our Simplecast site for links to... wherever we're streaming, I can tell you right now, we're on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, but if you go to our simple cast site, you can also check out our show notes and transcripts on there. So if it's too much for you to listen, you can read what we had to say in that episode, or maybe you didn't quite catch something. And then the show notes are basically just links to Wilco performances, to some really silly things. It's just a good little time in there.
Mary: Meredith has done a great job on the show notes. It's been, like, really fun for me to read them as the episodes have come out, because she goes in and finds all the little things we refer to and like makes sure that the YouTube links are up and all that so-
Meredith: Thank you! It's been a fun thing to do. Alright, we set all of our goodbye stuff. So until next time-
Mary: -there's only one thing left to say, which is Wilco Will Love You.
Meredith: Always remember. Wilco Will Love You. (Laughs) alright. Bye, Mary.
Mary: Bye. Bye, listeners!
(Outro: Wilco Will Love You is co-hosted by Mary MacLane and me, Meredith Coons. It is edited by Greta Stromquist and recorded at Portola Studios. Theme music by Adam Nash. You can rate and review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, or wherever you prefer to listen, so that you don't miss an episode.)