Looking back at his childhood, a key moment emerges for Jeff Tweedy: the day his mother taught him how to play solitaire after sensing he spent too much time alone.<\/p>\n
Green Room Newsletter<\/p>\n
You\u2019re subscribed!<\/b><\/p>\n
Please check your inbox for your confirmation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Stay ahead of what\u2019s hitting Chicago stages, galleries, museums and more with Green Room, WBEZ\u2019s weekly arts & culture newsletter!<\/p>\n
Sorry, there was an error registering your email.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
<\/bsp-form>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
\u201cThat explains a lot,\u201d he said recently, laughing. To this day, at 58, the Chicago singer-songwriter and Wilco frontman says that his 30-year catalog of songs required a \u201csacrifice.\u201d For him, it was \u201cbeing conditioned to endure solitude and accept that that\u2019s part of what it takes to do the thing that you want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I love that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwilight Override\u201d \u2014 his fifth solo album, out Friday \u2014 is the kind of record that exists by its own rules. Quiet spaces, folk guitars, choruses of interlocking voices, bursts of frenetic rock guitar energy and even spoken-word poetry are hallmarks of 30 songs that stretch across three discs. (WBEZ is presenting Tweedy in two intimate concerts on Thursday as a pop-up event.)<\/p>\n
![\"[Album](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/d926dc5\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3000x3000+0+0\/resize\/840x840!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Ff2%2Fc9%2Fd8af6418456c96e0150722d05c75%2Falbum-art-jeff-tweedy-twilight-override-by-shervin-lainez.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\n\u201cTwilight Override\u201d comes out on Sept. 26. <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n Courtesy of Shervin Lainez<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n Together, they feel like a culmination for Tweedy, referencing familiar chapters from his past but pushing them into a wholly new direction. Tweedy considered it a \u201cluxury\u201d to indulge in the triple record, an art form that doesn\u2019t have many successful parallels. Not only did the project allow him to thread a greater number of diverse musical ideas together, but he also curated the songs for a cohesive set of stories.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve made shorter records that take longer to listen to, and that\u2019s because I think there\u2019s a real magic to the way it\u2019s sequenced,\u201d he told WBEZ at The Loft, his Northwest Side studio where \u201cTwilight Override\u201d was recorded. \u201cI was successful getting all of these songs to sit next to each other and not feel like a slog. I\u2019m asking for a lot [from the listener], but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s too much.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTwilight Override\u201d was recorded at The Loft, Tweedy\u2019s studio on the Northwest Side.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n The songs also serve the musical identity of a group of Chicago-based musicians: guitarist James Elkington, multi-instrumentalist Liam Kazar, singers and multi-instrumentalists Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart<\/u><\/a>, and Tweedy\u2019s sons Spencer and Sammy. All have performed in different incarnations with Tweedy, and over time, he became entranced by the intimacy of their voices.<\/p>\n The group is connected emotionally and by family: Kazar and Cunningham share blood as siblings, as do the Tweedy sons, while Stewart and Cunningham sing together in their band Finom. Their rising harmonies are the focal point of \u201cBlank Baby,\u201d while on \u201cNew Orleans,\u201d their voices begin delicately but then form a wall around the music. On other tracks, like \u201cCry Baby Cry\u201d and \u201cBetrayed,\u201d their tranquil uniformity eases the bruises of Tweedy\u2019s folk-strained voice.<\/p>\n Once convinced he should write for their voices and not just his own, Tweedy said the songs \u201cpoured out of me.\u201d \u201cIt seemed to liberate a certain type of song that \u2026 was going to make more sense with this communal voice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cTwilight Override\u201d is not dominated by one theme. Instead, the music \u2014 often quiet but always rooted in harmony and melody \u2014 yearns for connection in the face of creeping darkness. On \u201cThrowaway Lines,\u201d featuring just Tweedy on guitar with Stewart on fiddle, he sings of the value of cliches to express feelings when \u201cthe hurt gets harder to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n Once convinced he should write for a collective of voices and not just his own, Tweedy said the songs \u201cpoured out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n Tweedy said negotiating levels of vulnerability is a common challenge for most songwriters: \u201cI think every songwriter is confronted with, like, \u2018How much of me do I really want to put into this? And how do I disguise that I\u2019m talking about somebody else?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the serenity of many of the songs, there are also fragmented moments: the detuned guitar clawing over the gentle strums of \u201cAmar Bharati,\u201d the psychedelic guitar swirls of \u201cKC Rain (No Wonder)\u201d or the bubbling synths of \u201cMirror.\u201d<\/p>\n Since his days in Uncle Tupelo, the pioneering Americana band he co-founded in downstate Belleville, his hometown, Tweedy\u2019s lyrics have become less linear. Part of that is intentional \u2014 he\u2019s a lifelong reader who appreciates postmodern literature \u2014 but he also acknowledged an ambition to \u201cget away\u201d with more in Wilco\u2019s music.<\/p>\n Pushing the boundaries in Wilco helped push the boundaries of the genre from the very beginning. \u201cI wanted to not just write about things that felt like they fit into what ended up being called \u2018alt-country.\u2019 Even though I fit into that \u2014 I do,\u201d Tweedy said. \u201cBut I think I fit into it more now, because hopefully I\u2019ve played a part in expanding what that\u2019s allowed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/8e1cf72\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2500x1667+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F0b%2F45%2Ff3bf3da14783bfab4c1c191ae7a4%2Ftweedy-0922250035.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\n![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/9352f41\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2500x1667+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F93%2F4b%2F88af00a24ee5ba4c7b45195ad906%2Ftweedy-0922250064.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\n
![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/0768fb1\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2500x1667+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F7c%2Fd1%2Fb8045b364f64a10b2736abeb44b6%2Ftweedy-0922250024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\n![\"Jeff](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/08df914\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2500x1668+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fbf%2F8f%2Fd96444484b998adfc7b5cc0b112a%2Ftweedy-0922250123.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\n