Wilco’s ‘A Ghost Is Born’ Haunts Again: Grammy Winner Gets Massive 20th Anniversary Treatment

Nonesuch Records is set to release a comprehensive deluxe edition of Wilco’s Grammy Award-winning album A Ghost Is Born on February 7, 2025, marking the influential record’s 20th anniversary. The expansive collection unveils 65 previously unreleased tracks, offering an unprecedented look into the album’s creation and evolution.

The anniversary package will be available in two formats: a nine-vinyl LP and four-CD set, or a nine-CD collection. Both versions include the original album, alternates, outtakes, and demos, providing an intimate chronicle of the record’s development. A complete concert recording from Boston’s Wang Center in 2004 and the band’s experimental “fundamentals” workshop sessions round out the historical document.

The release features a 48-page hardcover book with previously unpublished photographs and new liner notes by Grammy-winning writer Bob Mehr. As a preview, Nonesuch has made available an alternate version of “Handshake Drugs,” recorded at New York’s Sear Sound on November 13, 2003.

Originally released on June 22, 2004, “A Ghost Is Born” marked a critical turning point for Wilco. The album debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard chart and earned the band its first Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, along with a second Grammy for Best Recording Package. Critics praised its eclectic mix of “dark ballads, upbeat pop songs, Krautrock chug, noise rock freakouts, and roots rock abandon,” as Mehr describes it.

The album’s creation coincided with significant changes in the band’s lineup. The recording featured Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach, Glenn Kotche and Mikael Jorgensen, with Jim O’Rourke co-producing alongside the band. Following Bach’s departure after the sessions, Pat Sansone and Nels Cline joined the group, establishing Wilco’s current lineup that has remained stable for two decades.

“Making that record, and then finding this lineup, that was the start of something—of having a band that can play anything,” Tweedy tells Mehr in the new liner notes. “That’s why, twenty years later, we’re still here and still going.”

The album’s journey began in early 2002 at Chicago’s Soma E.M.S. before culminating at New York’s Sear Sound in late 2003. These sessions captured both traditional song tracking and experimental “Fundamentals” improvisations, which drummer Glenn Kotche describes as “an attempt to search for a new group identity.”

For Tweedy, who was grappling with addiction during this period, the album represents more than just a musical milestone. “I was worried the album was going to feel like something dark and not me anymore,” he reflects in the liner notes. “But the album was ahead of me as a person. It was the part of me that I was trying to preserve—enthusiastic and furious about the world, as well as open and loving.”

A Ghost Is Born 9 LP & 4 CD / 9 CD Deluxe Edition Tracklist (65 previously unreleased tracks)

A Ghost Is Born

1. At Least That’s What You Said
2. Hell Is Chrome
3. Spiders (Kidsmoke)
4. Muzzle of Bees
5. Hummingbird
6. Handshake Drugs
7. Wishful Thinking
8. Company in My Back
9. I’m A Wheel
10. Theologians
11. Less Than You Think
12. The Late Greats

dBpm: Outtakes/Alternates 1

1. At Least That’s What You Said (8/13/02 SOMA-Chicago)
2. Hell Is Chrome (10/5/03 SOMA-Chicago)
3. Spiders (Kidsmoke) (9/28/03 SOMA-Chicago)
4. Muzzle Of Bees (7/15/03 SOMA-Chicago)
5. Hummingbird (2/8/02 SOMA-Chicago)
6. Handshake Drugs (11/13/03 Sear Sound-NYC)
7. Wishful Thinking (11/1/03 Sear Sound-NYC)
8. Company In My Back (2/8/03 Hothouse-St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia)
9. I’m A Wheel (August 2002 SOMA-Chicago)
10. Theologians (3/19/03 SOMA-Chicago)
11. Less Than You Think (11/11/03 Sear Sound-NYC)
12. The Late Greats (7/19/03 SOMA-Chicago)
13. Kicking Television (3/18/03 SOMA-Chicago)
14. The High Heat (2/5/02 SOMA-Chicago)
15. Panthers (March 2003 SOMA-Chicago)
16. Diamond Claw (3/21/03 SOMA-Chicago)
17. Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard (June 2002 SOMA-Chicago)
18. More Like The Moon (2/8/02 SOMA-Chicago Version)
19. Improbable Germany (10/7/03 SOMA-Chicago)

Unstitched: Outtakes/Alternates 2

1. Handshake Drugs (First Version) (6/26/02 SOMA-Chicago)
2. Hummingbird (February 2002 recorded live during tracking at SOMA-Chicago)
3. The High Heat (2/4/02 SOMA-Chicago)
4. Spiders (Kidsmoke) (February 2002 SOMA-Chicago)
5. Diamond Claw (March 2003 SOMA-Chicago)
6. Muzzle Of Bees (October 2003 Sear Sound-NYC)
7. Like A Stone (11/10/03 Sear Sound-NYC)
8. Leave Me (Like You Found Me) (6/26/02 SOMA-Chicago)
9. Losing Interest (11/11/03 Sear Sound-NYC)
10. Old Maid (6/26/02 SOMA-Chicago)
11. Spiders (Kidsmoke) (August 2002 SOMA-Chicago)
12. Panthers (October 2003 Sear Sound-NYC)
13. Muzzle Of Bees (7/16/03 SOMA-Chicago)
14. Diamond Claw (10/9/03 SOMA-Chicago)
15. Losing Interest (7/20/03 SOMA-Chicago)
16. Spiders (Kidsmoke) (October 2003 SOMA-Chicago)
17. The Thanks I Get (6/26/02 SOMA-Chicago)
18. Two Hat Blues (March 2003 SOMA-Chicago)
19. Improbable Germany (January 2002 Pre-Production Loft session-Chicago)

The Hook at The Wang (Live October 2, 2004 at the Wang Center-Boston, MA)

1. Muzzle Of Bees
2. Company In My Back
3. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
4. A Shot In The Arm
5. Hell Is Chrome
6. Handshake Drugs
7. Jesus, Etc.
8. Hummingbird
9. I’m Always In Love
10. At Least That’s What You Said
11. Ashes Of American Flags
12. Theologians
13. I’m The Man Who Loves You
14. Poor Places
15. Spiders (Kidsmoke)
16. She’s A Jar
17. A Magazine Called Sunset
18. Kingpin
19. The Late Greats
20. I’m A Wheel
21. Via Chicago
22. California Stars
23. Christ For President

Fundamentals

1. Fundamental 1
2. Fundamental 2
3. Fundamental 3
4. Fundamental 4
5. Fundamental 5
6. Fundamental 6
7. Fundamental 7