Now Hear This

Finally got around to seeing “Man In The Sand” and was riveted throughout. Billy Bragg did a marvelous job creating music to a handful of the thousands of unrecorded songs Woody Guthrie left behind after his death. Seeing Bragg’s journey from Guthrie’s hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma to the shore off Coney Island, the last place Woody called home, added a whole new perspective to what was already one of my all time favorite albums. Rumors of tension between Jeff Tweedy and Bragg about song selection among other things have long circulated but the only allusion to it in the film that I could see was this less than thinly veiled quote from Tweedy: “In the conversations that we’ve had that have not been arguments, but just discussions, Billy starts talking about the big picture. And these are things that I haven’t thought about at all. My only response to him is, ‘You know what, I bet Woody would just pick the songs that didn’t suck.’”

If you don’t own Mermaid Avenue go out and buy it this instant. If you do and love it like everyone who owns it does than “Man In The Sand” is revelatory. Here are some unreleased demos, outtakes and alternate versions to get you started:

Billy Bragg & Wilco: Mermaid Avenue Demos

She Came Along To Me
All You Fascists
Agin’st The Law
Agin’st The Law
When The Roses Bloom Again
California Stars
Hesitating Beauty
Greenback Dollar
My Flying Saucer
Hoodoo Voodoo
Ain’t Gonna Grieve My Lord No More
Give Me A Nail
Birds & Ships
She Came Along To Me
I Guess I Planted
Eisler On The Go
The Unwelcome Guest

Zip them demos: Mermaid Avenue Demos zipped