Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue (1998)

On this day—June 23, 1998—Mermaid Avenue, the album by Billy Bragg and Wilco with lyrics by Woody Guthrie was released. As the story goes, in 1995, Nora Guthrie, Woody’s daughter and then-executor of the Guthrie estate, contacted Billy Bragg to see if he would be interested in composing music for a box of lyrics for songs her father had left unfinished. Bragg in turn contacted Wilco, and the stage was set. It’s an inspired grouping, but, as so often happens in experiments like this, it could have easily ended up being simply a good idea on paper. Fortunately for everyone, it was every bit as good as advertised. Charming, lyrical, and with something timeless about it, Mermaid Avenue would go on to become both Bragg and Wilco’s biggest success to date.

Mr. Shane “I hate him” Hollander

and Mr. Ilya “is simple for me” Rozanov