Free the Spirit: Wilco

"IF I PLAYED you all the Wilco songs in chronological order on an acoustic guitar, they probably wouldn't sound that different," declares Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy. "What has become more interesting to me, though, is that as these simple songs continue to come out of me, I've also been able to tap into my unconscious. I'm always happiest with a song when I feel it came from some place that I couldn't reach intellectually without having art and music to help me get there. The exciting part of being involved with Wilco during the last few records has been to be able to transfer that unconscious state into the overall band, where we use the songs as skeletons to hang different ideas on. Then we pull the skeleton out and get rid of it."