Happy 50th Birthday Jeff Tweedy: 5 Pro-Shot Solo Performances

Singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy today celebrates his 50th birthday. The politically active guitarist born in Southern Illinois came up in the late-1980s with the now defunct Uncle Tupelo, forging further success as the frontman for Wilco, which he formed in the mid-1990s.

A versatile musician, Jeff’s other projects include Loose Fur, Golden Smog and the band he formed with his son Spencer called Tweedy. A talented solo performer as well, a collection of Jeff’s solo recordings was issued earlier this year as his debut solo album Together At Last. In celebration of Jeff turning the big five-oh, here’s a set of five professionally shot videos of the guitarist performing solo in various setting over the past several years.

First is a highlight from the Sunken Treasure: Live in the Pacific Northwest DVD that documented Tweedy’s 2006 solo tour. The footage below features a solo acoustic arrangement of the Being There track “Sunken Treasure”:

The next clip if from Jeff’s appearance at the 2010 Farm Aid 25 concert held at Miller Park in Milwaukee. Among the songs played solo by Tweedy was “Remember The Mountain Bed,” one of the songs written with Woody Guthrie’s “lost” lyrics for the Mermaid Avenue collaborative album with Billy Bragg. Watch the solo appearance below:

One of the songs written for the 2014 debut Tweedy (the band) album Sukierae was “Honey Combed.” Here’s Jeff’s solo rendition of the track recorded outside for the Cardinal Sessions series:

The 2016 Pickathon festival at Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley, Oregon hosted a pair of solo Tweedy performances. Below is footage from his appearance at the Mt. Hood Stage performing the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot favorite “Jesus, Etc.,” watch here:

The fifth and final pro-shot video was captured earlier this year by WFUV Public Radio at Wilco’s Solid Sound festival in North Adams, Massachusetts. Released on the 2003 self-titled debut album by Loose Fur, the solo performance below sees Jeff offering a rendition of “Laminated Cat,” view it below: