Talking to Wilco guitarist Nels Cline on an afternoon in early February, he expressed delight at their pending appearance at a Neil Young tribute concert that evening in Los Angeles, one of a few shows on tap before they hit London’s Centennial Hall on February 24. What he doesn’t know however is that their performance of Young’s Buffalo Springfield hit, Mr. Soul will later be acclaimed be the highlight of the entire show.
Music industry critic Bob Lefsetz wrote that “Wilco’s performance was a tour de force” noting that other guests such as James Taylor, Jackson Browne and Sheryl Crow phoned in their performances.
The seeming contradiction between Cline’s gratitude at being able to pay tribute to Young and their subsequent stunning and heartfelt performance is a perfect snapshot of why Wilco is so beloved by their fans. Their fans know that Wilco are themselves music fans, something that Cline readily admits.
“I think somehow Jeff (Tweedy) really has a handle on it,” he offers. "Jeff and Tony Margherita our manager who’s been with Jeff since the Uncle Tupelo days really understand how a rock band fits into society and whatever our fanbase is. There’s a nice connection there and boy I can’t argue it. There’s lot of loyalty there.”
That loyalty was put to the test almost 10 ten years ago when Warner Music refused to release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Frustrated, the band made the album free for download on their website. After they cemented a deal with Nonesuch Records (comically enough, a Warner label) they released the music on disc. It went on to sell more copies than any of their previous releases despite the giveaway.
Cline saw much of this from the sidelines, not joining up with the band until 2004. Following the departure of the much-loved Jay Bennett, Cline shone with the band live, his post-blues experimental guitar playing fitting in extremely well with the trajectory of the band’s slow move away from their alt-country beginnings.
“I’m not trying to sound like a public relations man,” laughs Cline, “but my goal was to just fit in. They didn’t tell me anything but it worked out really well. Those were my concerns and it didn’t turn out to be all that much to be concerned about.
It’s been a long way since the alt-country leanings of their first few discs and with the band personnel switch-ups, Cline included, the band has made change a defacto policy. For fans of any specific style of Wilco’s music this can be a problem but Cline says it’s just something that happens.
“Jeff in the past has said that every record alienates someone or we lose a certain number of old fans and gain about the same number of new fans,” he says. “Very gradually it’s expanding but there’s certainly no effort to attempt to expand the fanbase. There’s kind of a - I hate to use this phrase - organic or natural phenomenon.
Cline has slid nicely into that organic mix, saying that the music he’s playing now is “what I was doing aesthetically prior to Wilco quite a bit.”
“It’s a little hard to explain but I can just tell you that it’s really lovely with an excellent band chemistry with a unified band approach to performing and playing and maybe life in general. You couldn’t ask for more.”
(photo note: the above pic was taken at the London Wilco show and taken from Flickr. To see more pics by this photographer go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltermassacre/4388442441/)
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