Uncle who? (continued)

It’s true that Tweedy has played into the myth of Tweedy, both by participating in the making of the rockumentary and by opening up to Kot in Learning How To Die. That the film and the book have appeared concurrently with A Ghost Is Born, however, isn’t something he had any control over. And it’s put him in an awkward position with his fans. "I’ve been asked so often whether or not we really need to have all the drama that’s gone on in the band — if, for example, we’re addicted to drama. Especially after the rehab, there have been a lot of questions like that. And I’d be lying if I said that that didn’t bother me a bit. But again, there’s nothing I can do about it. All I can say is I hope it’s not true because I feel really great right now. And I feel like the best things I’ve been able to do have come when I’ve felt good about things. In that movie, you’re seeing a real struggle for me to do what I love to do while I’m having problems with migraines and other psychological problems. That pain is real, but I hate to beat myself into a corner and say that that’s part of the creative process.

"Well-adjusted artists just aren’t interesting enough to people. Fans want artists to have some visible sign of a trade-off that the artist has to make in order to be creative. There are some things that are good about it: it’s really good for us to have a dedicated fan base because we don’t get a lot of airplay. I know it’s cultish, and there’s definitely more of it now than there’s ever been before . . . but I don’t know how to comment on it except to say that if people don’t like our music, I can understand that. And I can even understand people not liking our band because they’re put off by the fervor of our fans. I know I felt that way about the Grateful Dead for a long time."

Wilco’s roots may be in what’s come to be known as alt-country, and Uncle Tupelo were certainly one of the bands who laid the foundation for what now falls under the No Depression umbrella. But in a year that finds Wilco signed on to play the Newport Folk Festival a week from Sunday, A Ghost Is Born continues the drift away from roots rock. It’s easy to credit — or blame — O’Rourke (who has of late become the unofficial fifth member of Sonic Youth), because there are parts of the new album that Tweedy might not have had the confidence to pull off without him. The long noise collage that turns the penultimate song, "Less Than You Think," into a 15-minute flashback to Lou Reed’s notorious Metal Machine Music is the most obvious example, but there’s also the Stereolab-style pulse of "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," which goes on for more than 10 minutes, and the general tenor of Tweedy’s guitar playing. A Ghost Is Born marks the first time he’s stepped into the limelight as a lead-guitarist, and the album is peppered with extended solos that owe as much if not more to the likes of downtown New York players like the late Robert Quine and to Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine of Television as to anyone who played on any of the original Sun Sessions or the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Throw in an abstract chorus like the open-ended "At least that’s what you said . . . " ("At Least That’s What You Said") and poetic fragments like "Fool me with a kiss of kidsmoke/From a microscopic home/It’s good to be alone" ("Spiders (Kidsmoke))" and it almost seems that Tweedy has opted to do more talking with his guitar than with his voice or his lyrics. It’s an interesting if not quite fully realized development that proves Wilco are nowhere near the end of their creative tether.

"When Jay Bennett left the band," Tweedy acknowledges, "I was forced to cover a lot more parts on the electric guitar, and I’ve played more on our records than a lot of people are probably conscious of. But it’s not a big deal. It’s true that I’ve found a new love of the guitar over the last few years. And Jim [O’Rourke] has probably had an impact on that. Coming from our side of things, he’s definitely been supportive of the kinds of exploration that we’re into doing, and he’s encouraged us to go in certain directions. But I think a lot of people think that he came in and changed everything about Wilco, and that’s not how it happened. I mean, you’d be shocked at how much of a classicist he is in the studio. But he and I have the same kind of thing: no matter how many records we make, I’ll always be the alt-country guy and he’ll always be the avant-rock guy."

Wilco play the Apple & Eve Newport Folk Festival next Sunday, August 8, at Fort Adams State Park in Newport Rhode Island; call (866) 468-7619.