Jeff Tweedy Covers Big Star With Jody Stephens Near Memphis

Jeff Tweedy continued his current solo tour trend of covering a song related to the location of the concert during the encore of last night’s show at Germantown Performing Arts Center outside Memphis. Big Star drummer Jody Stephens emerged for the final song of the night, sitting in on “Thank You Friends.”

Wednesday’s encore began with the title track to the Wilco frontman’s recently released solo triple album, Twilight Override. The finale continued with Jeff’s son and bandmate, Sammy Tweedy, taking up vocal duties on Big Star’s “Kangaroo.”

Another band member, Sima Cunningham, was tasked with singing another Memphis-related song in the form of Al Green’s “Love And Happiness.” The encore continued with the Twilight Override track “Enough.”

Tweedy then summoned Jody Stephens, the lone surviving member of Big Star, the influential early-1970s power pop band from Memphis that included Alex Chilton, Chris Bell and Andy Hummel. Stephens took over for Jeff’s other son, drummer Spencer Tweedy, who then sang lead on “Thank You Friends.”

Both “Kangaroo” and “Thank You Friends” appeared on Big Star’s album, Third/Sister Lovers. Tweedy and Wilco covered Big Star’s “Thirteen” for the 2006 Stephens-produced tribute album, Big Star Small World. Wilco’s Patrick Sansone recently joined Stephens on the Big Star Quintet tour.

Watch Jody Stephens sit in with Jeff Tweedy on Big Star’s “Thank You Friends” last night near Memphis: