Smooth Sails For Wilco In 2005?

Steering The Ship: Wilco's Jeff Tweedy (Photo By: Chris Castaneda)

What might have been Wilco's New Year's resolution as they counted down the seconds from the stage of New York City's Madison Square Garden? Perhaps that no more members of the band have to depart, whether by choice or not. Or maybe that everyone remain healthy so to avoid a health crisis that hangs the band's future in the air.

The Chicago-based outfit have had their share of drama over the course of four years, adding a few grey hairs in the heads of fans and stories critics couldn't resist to tell from every possible angle such as Sam Jones' documentary film I Am Trying To Break Your Heart to Chicago Tribune rock critic Greg Kot's book Learning How To Die. At the beginning of 2001, the services of original drummer Ken Coomer were not enough to elevate singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy's vision of where the band had to go; enter Glenn Kotche. This was followed by the exit of guitarist Jay Bennett and the rejection of their fourth album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by their major label Reprise Records. By 2002, Tweedy, Leroy Bach, John Stirratt, and Glenn Kotche stood in the winner's circle with their album finding a new home on Nonesuch Records, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers, and massive critical acclaim the band had never experienced before. The saga reached a peak at the end of 2003 where after three years of touring, a downloadable free album turned #13 debut on Billboard, new member Mikael Jorgensen brought into the fold and a tour stint with R.E.M., Wilco returned to Chicago for two sold-out performances at the Auditorium Theatre, their highest attended concerts ever in Chicago behind their 4th of July show at Grant Park in 2001. As if that wasn't the icing on the cake, Wilco were then invited to be a part of Neil Young's 2003 Bridge School Benefit concerts; sharing the bill with giants like Pearl Jam, Willie Nelson, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young as the headliners for the all-acoustic affair.

On a creative and commercial roll, 2004 was going to be the year Wilco would take another step forward. A Ghost Is Born was on deck and there was a sense of excitement to expand their audience with all the new opportunities now open to them due to the success of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Here is where we cue the foreboding music, like the John Williams score for the stealthy approach by that mechanical shark in Jaws.

Feeling he had gone as far as he could with the band, multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach, once just a touring musician before becoming a member, revealed his intentions to leave the band after A Ghost Is Born was completed. The vetting for possible replacements was brief. Having served as guitarist for Carla Bozulich's Red Headed Stranger, opener for Wilco on the first night of their Auditorium Theatre shows the previous year, Nels Cline entered the Wilco camp adding a fresh, experimental style of guitar playing that was a perfect cog to the wheel of noise exploration Tweedy had began to construct since working with producer Jim O'Rourke on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Pat Sansone was John Stirratt's songwriting partner in his group away from Wilco, the Autumn Defense. Sansone handled the duties that Bach had left open on keyboards and guitar. With the right tools in place, the band went back to the business of preparing for an ambitious year with a highly anticipated new album and a tour schedule promising to be the best yet, featuring dates for the Coachella Valley Music Festival and Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival.

But an even greater shadow was soon cast over Wilco that made the lineup rotations seem almost insignificant. A history of panic attacks, migraines and self-medication caught up with Jeff Tweedy's body. What he must have felt were solutions turned out to be empty promises of relief. He was laying punishment upon punishment to his body, mentally and physically, till it just couldn't take it anymore. That March Tweedy entered a Chicago rehab center after it was determined he had been suffering from dual diagnosis, a condition where two separate medical disorders are active at the same time, frequently found in cases involving mental health and substance abuse. It was no longer the music making the news but the media's favorite lead dealing with a rock star and drugs. Spring tour dates were cancelled like their appearance at Coachella, and a question mark hung over Wilco's future as their creative well, the center to their circle, was locked in for the fight of his life.

If no one in the band or among their fans every believed in fate after all they had gone through over the years, they definitely had reason to believe now. Once again finding their way out the other end of the tunnel Wilco emerged. While Tweedy faced the largest test, each member were faced with their own. It wasn't so much the question of choosing between life or music, since their lives are so deeply soaked in the music they make--the two are inseparable--but a question of the strength of their individual will. It was a moment that could close the book on a band. The bands that barely crawl out of these moments almost never fully recover; it's almost as if the phrase "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" doesn't apply to them. Not so with Wilco.

The months following Tweedy's return to the band from his time in rehab saw a remarkable transition. A Ghost Is Born would debut at #8 on Billboard, surpassing Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's chart position to the surprise of many, and the band would return to the road stronger than ever before. The additions of Cline and Sansone added yet another new dimension to Wilco allowing for more creative chances to be taken on stage. As a band, they had sounded as if they had all been playing together for years. Whereas it took time for the four-piece version of Wilco to truly gell after Jay Bennett's departure, this Wilco with Cline and Sansone turned the corner so quickly that the end result was inspirational.

The crowing jewel of Wilco's 2004 was headlining a New Year's Eve concert at Madison Square Garden with support from the Flaming Lips and Sleater-Kinney. For Wilco, this was simply unprecedented for a band that was in so many ways the anti-arena rock band. A strong attendance of 11,000 traveled to the famed arena to ring in their New Year's in a different style as thousands were just a few blocks away filling Times Square. In blue pajamas, Tweedy stood with his acoustic guitar hung over him and lived out his boyhood dreams in an arena more associated with the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Who. It was a time and place where, as a fan, you don't worry that you're losing your band to the masses. It was sometime to be proud about, to see the band that has meant something to you reach a new high, to see them be the star in the kind of place you never could have imagined would ever give them the keys.

2005 is just a little over a month old, but the band is already gearing up for the new year with a tour set to launch on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Those who were anxious to see Wilco as part of the Coachella Valley Music Festival last year can look forward to the band being part of this year's festival lineup. A Ghost Is Born is scheduled to be given a touch up for Europe with a five-song bonus disc containing live tracks from a concert at the Orpheum Theater in Madison, WI from October of last year as well as studio takes of "Panthers" and "Kicking Television." Those who already own the album will be able to access the tracks as free downloads or purchase them via iTunes.

It's silly now to say that this could be the year for Wilco because by all accounts they have achieved more in the span of ten years than anyone including the sole original members--Tweedy and Stirratt--could ever dream. Being considered the American answer to Radiohead or successfully pulling off first time headlining duties for an arena show don't happen very often. Make no mistake, it's no longer a matter of what's the world got in store for Wilco but what does Wilco have in store for the rest of the world.

In the coming months, time will tell.