7LP+7” or 4CD box set includes 16 previously unreleased tracks

Billy Bragg & Wilco have announced an expanded collection of their Mermaid Avenue sessions, out in December.

The collaboration came about when Woody Guthrie’s daughter, Nora, contacted Bragg in 1995 about writing music for a selection of completed lyrics that her father had never set to music. Bragg approached Wilco – who had just released their second album, the rootsy Being There – to take part in the project. Though Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy was initially sceptical, the enthusiasm of multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett eventually won out and over sessions in Chicago and Dublin from 1996-’97, the songs that made up 1998’s Mermaid Avenue came together. As well as Wilco’s John Stirratt (bass) and Ken Coomer (drums), they were joined by guests including Natalie Merchant, Eliza Carthy and blues guitarist Corey Harris.

Mermaid Avenue was a revelation, with Bragg and Wilco choosing lyrics that showed a different side of Guthrie to his political work, from winking wordplay (‘Hoodoo Voodoo’, ‘Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key’) to romance (‘Hesitating Beauty’, ‘She Came Along To Me’). The gorgeous ‘California Stars’ is still a staple of Wilco’s gigs today. There was also a playfulness to the music, where some might have been overly reverent. “I think there was a real suspicion of roots music and nostalgia in the band at the time we made Mermaid Avenue that helped us to be a bit more irreverent and unburdened by Woody’s legacy and the weight of the historical context than we had any right to be,” Tweedy wrote in his autobiography, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back).

Two years later, a second volume emerged, featuring leftovers from the first album along with a clutch of new recordings, with highlights including Wilco’s gospel-tinged ‘Airline To Heaven’ and Bragg’s firecracker ‘All You Fascists’. In 2012, a third volume was added to the collection Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, with gems such as Wilco’s mournful ‘When The Roses Bloom Again’ and Bragg’s bolshy ‘My Thirty Thousand’ emphasising the amount of quality material cooked up during the sessions.

And now there’s more. The expanded edition of The Complete Sessions adds an extra volume, entitled Alternates & Demos featuring 18 tracks, only two of which have been previously released – a live version of ‘California Stars’ and a Tweedy solo take on ‘At My Window Sad And Lonely’ (both of which are likely the versions included on Wilco’s 2014 rarities set Alpha Mike Foxtrot). Though the tracks are mostly demos and alternate versions of songs released across the three existing volumes, ‘Psalm’ and ‘Long & Hard’ look to be previously unheard songs and there’s also a newly unearthed Guthrie home demo of ‘Hesitating Beauty’, which ends the set.

The Complete Sessions is available as either a 7LP+7″ or 4CD deluxe set, both of which feature new sleevenotes from author Bob Mehr (Trouble Boys: The True Story Of The Replacements). The 7LP+7” set is pressed on 180gm vinyl and comes in a slipcase, while the 4CD set comes in a “5.5-inch portfolio book”. Though the 2012 set featured a DVD including the revealing making-of documentary Man In The Sand, there is no Blu-ray in this set.

The three original volumes will also be reissued individually on 180gm vinyl in a variety of colours – a boon for fans as prices of previous pressings have shot up (Vol I has had two pressings, the others one each). The first volume is available in four colours – black, white (indie retailers), red (Craft Recordings site exclusive) and red (Barnes & Noble exclusive). Vol II comes in three colours – black, white (indies) and yellow (Craft). And Vol III will be available ein black, white (indies) and salmon (Craft)

Mermaid Avenue – The Complete Sessions is out on 11 December 2026 via Craft Recordings.

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