Having first heard this song very shortly before we moved to California, it's long been one of my favorite Wilco songs—I won't claim it's one of their very best, but it's definitely got a very special place in my heart.
But this live version from a few years ago, featuring the great Jason Isbell guesting on guitar, is really something else. While, sure, it could have been even better if Isbell had joined in on vocals, even without that, it's a lovely version of a lovely song.
Until the end. Isbell plays a nice if occasionally meandering solo. But then impossibly fantastic guitarist Nels Cline—who's already played a sweet solo earlier in the song—joins in, and the two guitarists engage in an absolutely perfect dialogue, reminiscent of the end of "Sultans of Swing," if that were a meditatively melancholy duet. Absolutely the only flaw is that it doesn't go on for another hour.
So I guess this has been a thing for ten years and I'm just now coming across it. In an effort to make up for lost time, I've listened to it on repeat for 5 hours now. And it's not getting old.
This is probably the finest cover of this great song I've ever heard—although that's actually kinda damning with faint praise, since I've heard a few good covers (Jimi Hendrix, Green Day), a couple okay (the Rolling Stones' version actually was better than I'd expected if still not exactly transcendent) and a bunch of terrible (John Mayer, sure, but David Gilmour?! What were you thinkin', man?), but few if any great. (Maybe Hendrix simply set the bar too high with "All Along the Watchtower," but I find his "Like a Rolling Stone" good—of course it is, it's Jimi—but far from great).
But the Drive-By Truckers make this their own without changing a damn thing. The finest southern rock band since the heyday of the Allman Bros and Lynyrd Skynrd, one listen makes it clear that they've heard the original hundreds of times. And like Dylan, they're fluent in rock, country and blues, as well as alternative. And the fact that each verse is sung by a different band member is sheer gold, bringing to mind the glory days of The Band, not inappropriately. Having the finest singer-songwriter of the past decade, Jason Isbell, taking a verse certainly doesn't hurt, but so good are the others that his doesn't even (especially) stand out (much); Patterson Hood's Henleyesque voice fits perfectly, and the addition of Shonna Tucker is always a welcome one, while Mike Cooley's country punk caps things off perfectly. And when they all shout the final chorus, it brings it all home in a way the song hasn't often since being played fuckin' loud at the semi-apocryphal Royal Albert Hall gig.
So how does it feel? Pretty sweet, actually.
(Also, the pumpfake of the snare shot at the beginning's pretty damn funny.)
I admittedly haven't listened to Jason Isbell or his former band Drive-By Truckers anywhere near as much as I should. Whenever I hear alt-country, or even think about it, I make a vow to myself to listen to more. Alas, I usually don't. This is just one of my many failings.
But here's one of the many reasons I should. And a hat-tip to good pal and huge Isbell fan Steve Coates for cluing me into this.
Here is a simply stunning version of a rather obscure track by the late, great Warren Zevon, "Mutineer," by Isbell and his wife Amanda Shires during a recent appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman.
For the most part I'll let this performance speak for itself, from the letter-perfect harmonies to the unceasing tenderness of their vocals to Mickey Raphael's harmonica work to the beautiful reverence they pay to this offbeat love song of an offbeat songwriter. But I will add one thing. Check out Dave's reaction following the performance. Warren Zevon was a friend of his, and for years Letterman was pretty much the only TV personality who would pay him any attention. The two had a bond that befit their renegade personalities. So when Dave thanks Isbell and Shires for this performance, he seems genuinely moved, almost choked up at one point.
