February 22–March 1, 2001

critic pick| rock/pop

Jeff Tweedy

Kind of ironic that the "Cosmic American Music" Gram Parsons championed (with little success) during his brief life would be reborn as an utterly hip (if not commercially successful) genre known as alt-country or "No Depression" — taken from the title of Uncle Tupelo’s 1990 debut album. And ironic, certainly, that just when Uncle Tupelo found an appreciative audience, its leaders, Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar, had a mysterious falling out and went off to create their own bands. While some would say Farrar’s Son Volt seems stuck in some sort of sonic replay mode, few can argue that Tweedy’s Wilco keeps confounding expectations with each new record. From the ambitious Being There to Wilco’s collaborations with Billy Bragg, Tweedy seems hell-bent on raising the bar a little more each time. He’ll undoubtedly toss in an Anodyne-era Tupelo tune along with some stuff from this summer’s as-yet-untitled new Wilco CD when his 12-city solo tour makes stop number two in Philly.

—Nicole Pensiero

Jeff Tweedy with special guest Ben Kweller, Sun., Feb. 25, 8 p.m., $18.50 ($20 day of show), at the TLA, 334 South St., 215-922-1011.