Mermaid Avenue
| Mermaid Avenue | |||||
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| Studio album by Billy Bragg and Wilco | |||||
| Released | June 23, 1998 | ||||
| Recorded | Dublin, Chicago and Boston | ||||
| Genre | Folk rock | ||||
| Length | 49:20 | ||||
| Label | Elektra | ||||
| Producer | Billy Bragg, Grant Showbiz, Wilco |
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| Billy Bragg chronology | |||||
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| Wilco chronology | |||||
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| Billy Bragg & Wilco chronology | |||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Chicago Sun-Times |  |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+ |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| Pitchfork Media | 6.8/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Spin | 8/10 |
| The Village Voice | A |
Mermaid Avenue is a 1998 album of previously unheard lyrics written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie, put to music written and performed by British singer Billy Bragg and the American band Wilco. The project was the first of several such projects organized by Guthrie's daughter, Nora Guthrie, original director of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and archives. Mermaid Avenue was released on the Elektra Records label on June 23, 1998. A second volume of recordings, Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, followed in 2000 and both were collected in a box set alongside volume three in 2012 as Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions. The projects are named after the song "Mermaid's Avenue", written by Guthrie. This was also the name of the street in Coney Island, New York on which Guthrie lived. According to American Songwriter Magazine, "The Mermaid Avenue project is essential for showing that Woody Guthrie could illuminate what was going on inside of him as well as he could detail the plight of his fellow man".
During the spring of 1992, Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora contacted English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg about writing music for a selection of completed Guthrie lyrics after Bragg played a Guthrie tribute concert in New York City's Central Park. Her father had left behind over a thousand sets of complete lyrics written between 1939 and 1967; as they had not been recorded by Guthrie, and he did not write music, none of these lyrics had any music other than a vague stylistic notation.
Nora Guthrie's liner notes in Mermaid Avenue indicate that it was her intention that the songs be given to a new generation of musicians who would be able to make the songs relevant to a younger generation. Nora Guthrie contacted Bragg, who in turn approached Wilco and asked them to participate in the project as well. Wilco agreed, and in addition to recording with Bragg in Ireland, they were given their own share of songs to finish.
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Wikipedia