Tickets for Wilco's March 27 concert at the Durham Performing Arts Center go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday. Tickets are $35 and my be purchased at the DPAC box office, 680-2787, online at www.DPACnc.com, or through Ticketmaster outlets, FYE and Lowes Foods.
By Cliff Bellamy
cbellamy@heraldsun.com; 419-6744
DURHAM -- In its almost 15-year existence, Chicago-based band Wilco has become one of the most acclaimed and perhaps beloved of bands playing Americana music. The band won a Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Alternative Music Album, for the Album "A Ghost is Born."
Wilco's most recent release "Wilco: The Album," has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Americana Album. The album also received numerous critical accolades, including Rolling Stone's list of top 25 albums of 2009, and top 25 songs of the year.
The Grammy Awards are Jan. 31, and in February Wilco will begin an extensive world tour that includes dates in the eastern United States. As part of that tour, Wilco will perform at the Durham Performing Arts Center March 27. Tickets for the March date go on sale Friday at DPAC and Ticketmaster outlets.
In the Grammy Americana category, Wilco is nominated along with Bob Dylan, Willie and the Wheel (Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel), and other artists. Dylan and Nelson played at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park last year, and Willie and the Wheel also performed at DPAC.
The Americana Music Association defines the genre as "music that honors and is derived from the traditions of American roots music" and "music inspired by American culture traditions." The music has a strong following locally, as evidenced by the Dylan-Nelson tours, and the ArtsCenter in Carrboro's annual American Roots Series, which kicks off this year in February. One hears many American influences in the songs of Wilco -- from country, to blues, to more improvisational instrumental rock. They follow in the tradition of earlier bands such as The Byrds and The Grateful Dead, whose sounds fused rock elements with bluegrass, folk and other traditional American music styles.
Wilco formed in the mid-1990s when Uncle Tupelo, a roots-based band led by songwriters Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar, dissolved. Tweedy recruited several instrumentalists to form Wilco, which released its first recording "A.M." in 1995. The band has undergone several changes in personnel over the years. The current band who will perform at DPAC are Tweedy -- the principal songwriter, vocalist and guitarist -- John Stirratt on bass and vocals, Glenn Kotche on drums, Nels Cline on guitars, Pat Sansone on guitars, keyboards and vocals, and Mike Jorgensen on keyboards and vocals.
Other Wilco albums include the critically acclaimed "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and "Kicking Television: Live in Chicago." The band's folk influences also may be heard on a collaboration with songwriter Billy Bragg titled "Mermaid Avenue," performances of unreleased material written by folk icon Woody Guthrie. The band also has been the subject of a documentary, "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart."
