Mermaid Avenue 2LP

Nora Guthrie handed Billy Bragg her father's unrecorded lyric sheets in 1995, and Bragg brought in Wilco to set them to new music across sessions in Dublin, Chicago, and Boston. The 15-track Elektra release pulls in Natalie Merchant for lead vocals on "Birds and Ships" and backing vocals on "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key." It picked up a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album and placed fourth in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll that year, strong enough proof this collaboration worked.