Publisher's Synopsis
This book is a biography of Jeff Tweedy, one of the most influential and respected musicians of his generation. He is the leader of Wilco, a critically acclaimed and commercially successful indie rock band that has been active for over 25 years. He is also a prolific songwriter, author, and record producer who has collaborated with a diverse range of artists, from Billy Bragg and Mavis Staples to Jim O'Rourke and The Minus Five. He has released over 20 albums, both with Wilco and as a solo artist or with other projects. He has won two Grammy Awards, one for Best Alternative Music Album for A Ghost Is Born in 2005, and one for Best Americana Album for You Are Not Alone in 2011. He has also written a memoir, Let's Go (So We Can Get Back), which was published in 2018.
But behind the music and the accolades, there is a complex and fascinating human being who has faced many challenges and struggles in his life and career. Jeff Tweedy was born on August 25, 1967, in Belleville, Illinois, a small town near St. Louis, Missouri. He grew up in a working-class family, with a father who worked as a railroad clerk and a mother who was a medical secretary. He was exposed to music at an early age, listening to his parents' records of country, folk, and rock artists. He learned to play guitar when he was six years old, and soon started writing his own songs. He met his lifelong friend and musical partner Jay Farrar when he was 14, and they formed their first band together, The Plebes. Tweedy's musical journey took him from the punk and country scenes of the 1980s to the alt-country and indie rock scenes of the 1990s and beyond. He co-founded Uncle Tupelo with Farrar in 1987, a band that pioneered the genre of alt-country, which blended punk and country influences. Uncle Tupelo released four albums before breaking up in 1994 due to creative and personal differences between Tweedy and Farrar. Tweedy then formed Wilco with some of the former members of Uncle Tupelo, as well as new musicians. Wilco started as a country-rock band, but soon expanded their sound to incorporate elements of pop, rock, folk, experimental, and electronic music