Mermaid Avenue

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Mermaid Avenue is a 1998 studio album by Billy Bragg and Wilco that puts new music to Woody Guthrie’s unfinished lyrics. The lyrics were written between 1939 and 1967, and Bragg and Wilco wrote the melodies and performed the songs. Nora Guthrie, Woody’s daughter and the head of the Woody Guthrie Foundation, organized the project. The album was released on June 23, 1998, by Elektra and runs 49 minutes and 20 seconds, blending alt-country and folk rock. It was recorded in several studios: Totally Wired in Dublin, Windmill Lane in Dublin, King Size Sound Laboratories in Chicago, and Fort Apache in Boston. Producers were Billy Bragg, Wilco, and Grant Showbiz. Mermaid Avenue was followed by Mermaid Avenue Vol. II in 2000 and later by Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions (2012), which also collects a third volume. The title comes from Guthrie’s song "Mermaid's Avenue," and from the street in Coney Island where he lived. The project received critical acclaim, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and placed fourth in the 1998 Pazz & Jop critics poll. A documentary, Man in the Sand, appeared in 1999 and a DVD is included in the Complete Sessions box.