Way Over Yonder

Has it really been ten years since the release of Mermaid Avenue? Almost -- and Alan Jacobs wonders why the project never gained the kind of fame that a very similar collaboration -- the Basement Tapes -- did.

Of course, as Jacobs concedes, neither Billy Bragg nor Wilco has anything like the star power of Bob Dylan. But I agree with him that their musical animation of lost Woody Guthrie lyrics is a masterpiece, and a decade later, it's still not too late to spread the word.