Tweedy in the Tennessee Valley

Walker Theatre

There are reasons that have nothing to do with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and everything to do with never seeing a show in Chattanooga that led me southeast.

I could have gone the Tennessee Performing Arts Center route a month earlier, but that Sunday show at the Walker Theatre was too tantalizing.

 Seeing Tweedy the tiny 800-person theater akin to the Southern Theatre in Columbus made it even more perfect. He had two new solo albums that run shotgun to a musical memoir that was among my favorite 2018 reads. As usual, he had plenty to talk about.

The show sold out early, but not even three-quarters of the seats were full at any moment. I expected them to file in after opener James Elkington played 30 minutes of pleasant English folk.

Jeff Tweedy was his usual outspoken self, not afraid to spar with the audience or overexplain a song. Few musicians banter better, and his entire memoir had the feel of dialogue between songs. When he forgot about a past visit to Chattanooga in Wilco, the audience was quick to correct him.

I don’t want to say the set lists have become more predictable, but there are songs you are guaranteed to hear. When Tweedy opened with the unmistakable “Dreamt about killing you again last night and it felt alright to me” of Via Chicago, the audience was in his zone. Rare is the show that doesn’t include I am Trying to Break Your Heart, Heavy Metal Drummer, Jesus Etc. or Hummingbird, all stellar songs.

He pulled an early twist with Remember the Mountain Bed from Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2, and Woody Guthrie’s lyrics haunted the old theater in Tweedy’s always-earthy voice.

Walker facade and streetscape

Tweedy pulled half of his cuts from Warm and its Record Store Day-only follow-up Warmer. It was a little frustrating to hear so many songs from an album that wasn’t widely available. But all sounded great live, especially Family Ghost.

He retained the intimacy of the record on songs like I Know What It’s Like and Let’s Go Rain. You can hear the choruses in the Walker Theater and could imagine the same sounds in the Wilco Loft in Chicago. Having Been is No Way to Be has become my favorite, a song as cutting as Bob Dylan’s Positively Fourth Street.

Solo Tweedy shows always pull in the unexpected since he doesn’t stick to Wilco songs. Two tracks from Uncle Tupelo’s Anodyne (New Madrid and Acuff-Rose) anchored the set, and a Loose Fur stray also made the cut. Tweedy brought out a local friend whose name I forgot to join him on vocals for You and I, a song he originally recorded with Feist.

My seat neighbor was Ben, who showed up drunk and was happy to feed me beers in exchange for a setlist. He disappeared about 18 songs in, and when I left, I warily looked for him, afraid he would judge my chicken-scratch scribbled in the dark theater as inadequate. I never saw him again and didn't mind.

Outside Chattanooga was quiet. If Tweedy had played on the street corner, he would have been heard for blocks. But his acoustic tones had already soared through the Walker.

Not violating the no recording policy

Postscript- I didn't feel right going against the no photos or video signs posted everywhere, so no pics from the actual show.