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If you’ve ever been to a live show and heard an incredible acoustic version of a song you know really well, and just wished more than anything that you could hear it like that again and again, Jeff Tweedy’s new record will be a crucial one to add to your fast-growing Wilco collection. On the eve of another Solid Sound festival, Tweedy has bestowed upon on us Together At Last, a pure, beautiful gem that will get lots of play. Tweedy has chosen ten tunes from past Wilco records (plus one Loose Fur cut) and rerecorded them solo and acoustic. His voice sounds better than ever, clear and bright, and these soft renditions are romantic and dreamy.
It is likely that we’ll get a few of these spare performances this weekend in North Adams, Massachusetts when Tweedy takes the stage upwards of three times over three days. Wilco’s three-day festival happens just every other year, and this year promises another compelling lineup. Together At Last feels like a homecoming for Tweedy, like he’s getting back to the bare bones of some of his favorite songs after a steady stream of new Wilco material and side projects. It is just a man with his guitar, singing songs he knows like the back of his hand. And we can expect more of the same in the future, as he plans to release a series of these acoustic solo records that draw on Wilco’s impressive and prolific body of work.
Standouts on Together At Last are the tunes that have an unexpected beauty to them when pared down and slowed down. “Dawned On Me” from 2011’s The Whole Love is originally an upbeat pop song about being away from the person you love. The tune of it always sounded just faintly like Supergrass’s “Alright”, a celebratory, timeless earworm. In Tweedy’s new version, it becomes achingly lovely as he practically whispers the lyrics to us. It’s like he’s lifting the curtain and suddenly we can see how intimate a song it really is. But the greatest realization is how much we need both versions in our lives.
Similarly “I’m Always in Love” (1999’s Summerteeth), “Sky Blue Sky” (2007’s album of the same name) and “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” (2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) take on new life in their subtler versions, with bewitching acoustic guitar melodies that remind us how much we love these tunes. At its best, that is the greatest achievement of Together At Last. It plays out like a photo album, sorting through memories associated with these special songs that mean so much to us. No doubt Tweedy probably feels the same way.
