Jeff Tweedy Caricature

Jeff Tweedy Caricature, shown here for a publicity shoot in the Netherlands, 1996 at age 29.

Jeffrey Scot Tweedy (born August 25, 1967) is an American songwriter, musician, and record producer best known as the singer and guitarist of the band Wilco. Tweedy, originally from Belleville, Illinois, started his music career in high school in his band The Plebes with Jay Farrar, which subsequently transitioned into the alternative country band Uncle Tupelo. After Uncle Tupelo broke up Tweedy formed Wilco which found critical and commercial success, most notably with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, the latter of which received a Grammy for Best Alternative Album in 2005.

In 1994, Tweedy formed Wilco with John Stirratt, Max Johnston, and Ken Coomer; Jay Bennett joined the band soon after.
Tweedy and Wilco began to explore new styles and broke from the style of previous recordings on the seminal sprawling double album Being There in 1996. Tweedy did not write music for many of the songs ahead of time, and welcomed unexpected sounds into the recording. Wilco recorded nineteen songs for the double-CD album, and wanted the label to release it with a retail price comparable to a single-CD release. Being There was a commercial success, selling 300,000 copies and peaking in the top half of the Billboard 200.

Across Tweedy’s career he has released sixteen studio albums, including four with Uncle Tupelo, ten with Wilco, one with his son Spencer, and a solo acoustic album, along with numerous collaborations with other musicians, most notably Mermaid Avenue with Billy Bragg. On November 30, 2018 Jeff Tweedy released Warm, his first solo album of new material.

Some favorite Wilco hits: “Radio King”, “The Lonely 1”, “Kingpin”, “Less Than You Think”, “Remembering The Mountain Bed”, “Either Way”, “Passenger Side”, “Outtasite (Outta Mind)”, “Box Full of Letters”, “One Sunday Morning”, “Jesus, Etc.”, “Via Chicago”, “I Must Be High”, “Ashes of American Flags”, and “Misunderstood”.