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Craft Recordings plans to release an expanded edition of Wilco and Billy Bragg’s Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions on Dec. 11. The seven-LP set and 7-inch single add 18 tracks, including 17 alternate takes and demos and a Woody Guthrie home recording of “Hesitating Beauty.”
Craft Recordings will release an expanded edition of Wilco and Billy Bragg’s Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions on Dec. 11, adding 18 tracks to the collection of music built from unused Woody Guthrie lyrics. The new edition is planned as a seven-LP box set plus a 7-inch single, extending the 2012 release with alternate takes, demos and a Guthrie home recording.
The added material consists of 17 alternate takes and demos and a home tape of Guthrie performing “Hesitating Beauty,” according to the announcement reported by Stereogum. The set brings together the two original Mermaid Avenue albums and the previously issued third volume, alongside the newly added recordings.
The original Mermaid Avenue project paired Wilco with English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg to set lyrics left unused by Guthrie to new music. The first album appeared in 1998, followed by Mermaid Ave. Vol. II in 2000. A 2012 release called The Complete Sessions collected both albums and 17 previously unreleased recordings as Vol. III.
The release announcement follows a renewed performance of the material: Wilco and Bragg played the original Mermaid Avenue album in full at Wilco’s Solid Sound festival in June, described in the report as the first time they had performed it that way. The new set is scheduled for Dec. 11 through Craft Recordings.
A Deeper Archive of Mermaid Avenue
The expanded set adds archival material to a collaboration that connected Guthrie’s unpublished lyrics with new songs by Wilco and Bragg. For listeners, the new recordings offer versions and working-stage material beyond the finished tracks and the 17 unreleased recordings already included in the 2012 collection.
The project also has a lasting place in Wilco’s live repertoire. “California Stars,” first released on Mermaid Avenue, became a perennial live staple, according to the source report. The June full-album performance and the forthcoming box set put attention back on the collaboration, though the announcement does not establish whether additional performances are planned.
Wilco Billy Bragg Mermaid Avenue vinyl box set
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From Guthrie Lyrics to Three Volumes
Mermaid Avenue began with a selection of lyrics by American folk musician Woody Guthrie that had not previously been set to music. Wilco and Bragg wrote and recorded new songs around those words, releasing the first album in 1998. The project continued with Mermaid Ave. Vol. II in 2000.
In 2012, the artists issued Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, bringing the two albums together with 17 previously unreleased recordings presented as Vol. III. The newly announced box set builds on that package rather than describing a new studio collaboration: its stated additions are archival takes, demos and Guthrie’s home tape of “Hesitating Beauty.”
““17 alternate takes and demos””
— Stereogum’s report on the release
Woody Guthrie unreleased recordings CD
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Release Details Still Awaited
The announcement establishes the planned Dec. 11 release date, format and number of added tracks, but the supplied report does not give a full track listing, pricing, pre-order information or details about how the material is divided among the records. It also does not state whether the box set will be accompanied by a digital edition or other formats.
The report does not identify the recording dates or locations for the 17 alternate takes and demos, or provide further details about Guthrie’s home tape. Those specifics remain unconfirmed in the available source material.
Mermaid Avenue complete sessions 7 LP set
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Box Set Due December 11
The next confirmed milestone is the planned Dec. 11 release of Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions through Craft Recordings. Further details about the track sequence, ordering and availability may be announced by the label or artists; the source report does not provide a schedule for those updates.
Until more information is released, the confirmed scope is a seven-LP set and 7-inch single with 18 additions to the prior collection. No further Wilco and Bragg performances of the album have been announced in the supplied material.
folk music archival recordings collection
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Key Questions
When is the expanded Mermaid Avenue box set due?
Dec. 11, according to the release announcement reported by Stereogum.
What is included in the new edition?
The box set is described as seven LPs plus a 7-inch single. It adds 18 tracks: 17 alternate takes and demos, plus a Woody Guthrie home tape of “Hesitating Beauty.”
How does it differ from the 2012 Complete Sessions?
The 2012 edition combined Mermaid Avenue and Mermaid Ave. Vol. II with 17 previously unreleased recordings issued as Vol. III. The new box set adds 18 more tracks to that collection.
Who made the original Mermaid Avenue albums?
Wilco and Billy Bragg created new music for unused lyrics by Woody Guthrie. The first album came out in 1998, followed by Mermaid Ave. Vol. II in 2000.
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