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Jeff Tweedy

Grammy Award-winning musician and frontman of Wilco

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  • About Jeff Tweedy

    Jeff Tweedy is one of the most influential American contemporary musicians. Since beginning Wilco in 1994, he has written hundreds of original songs, sold millions of records worldwide, won three Grammy Awards, received rave reviews from critics, and built a dedicated fan base.

    Tweedy first came to prominence as the bassist for the iconic alt-country band Uncle Tupelo, earning them a passionate cult following. Following Uncle Tupelo’s breakup, Jeff Tweedy formed Wilco in 1994 and quickly became one of America’s most critically acclaimed indie rock bands.

    Wilco’s 2002 album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of the 2000s–Rolling Stone ranked it as #3 on its list of 100 best albums of the decade.  In 2004, their album A Ghost is Born won a Grammy Award for “Best Alternative Music Album.” As of 2021, he has released 11 albums with Wilco, four solo albums, partnered with soul legend Mavis Staples on multiple albums, and started a new band with his sons and other Chicago area friends, among numerous other artistic pursuits.

    Hailed by George Saunders as “our great, wry, American consolation poet,” Jeff Tweedy opened up about his past, his music, and the people who inspired him in his New York Times bestselling memoir, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back). This long-awaited memoir contained never-before-told stories about childhood and family, career and collaborators, addiction and mental health, honesty, and morality. His follow-up 2020 book, How to Write One Song, not only brings readers into the intimate process of songwriting, but reaches beyond music to stress the importance of making space for creativity as a balanced part of life.

    Now, Jeff Tweedy brings his captivating storytelling to live events for fans, performers, or anyone who wants to make more room for art in their lives. Beyond stories from his incredible career, Tweedy gives concrete advice on working through a creative block, becoming comfortable with failure, and bringing play back into the creative process.

    In 2020, Tweedy made headlines when he announced that he would commit 5% of future songwriting revenue to organizations dedicated to social justice. In a statement that served as an industry-wide call to action, he wrote, “The modern music industry is built almost entirely on Black art. The wealth that rightfully belongs to Black artists was stolen outright…I’ve often thought there should be an industry-wide plan to address this enormous injustice.”

    While quarantining during the COVID pandemic, Tweedy and his wife, Susie Tweedy, launched “The Tweedy Show,” a nightly Instagram live discussion and performance hour starring their family. In addition to his memoir and How to Write One Song, Tweedy is also the author of Adult Head, a book of poems. When he isn’t on the road, he lives with his family in Chicago, IL.

     Contact us for more information about booking Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy for your next event. 

  • Speaking Topics

    A Conversation with Jeff Tweedy

    In personal, candid conversations, Jeff Tweedy shares stories from the long arc of his career and pulls back the curtain on his creative process. Perfect for anyone seeking to lead a more creative life, Tweedy shares valuable advice on how to disappear into an imaginative flow state, become comfortable with experimentation, and protect inspiration.

  • Video

  • Praise for Jeff Tweedy

    Praise for How to Write One Song

    [A] guide to rediscovering the joys of creating that we all felt as children … The main premise of Tweedy’s latest book is in the title, but many of his points could be applied equally to a variety of creative endeavors: namely, how to stop giving yourself excuses and start just doing the thing.

    The New York Times

    [How to Write One Song] is one part manual for composing a song, and one part philosophical inquiry into the human desire—the human need—to create. It’s also an easy, delightful read.

    Esquire.com

    [A] generous and thoughtful argument for carving time out for creativity. [Tweedy] attempts to demystify songwriting, offering both encouragement and practical tips that from anyone else might read as self-help. But instead, Tweedy strikes a tone that’s more like that of an exuberant friend: You have to try this, man. And you’ll want to.

    Chicago Tribune

    How To Write One Song [is] a smart, funny, relentlessly practical guide to discovering the secret songwriter within.

    GQ

    Frank, philosophical yet accessible.

    People

    Jeff Tweedy is the perfect example of the consummate songwriter…Given his decades of success as an artist, the veteran musician has a lot of insight and advice to offer about writing a song. Offering tips and advice along the way, Tweedy guides readers on such things as starting a song and handling writer’s block, a dreaded moment for any writer.

    Forbes

    In this succinct guide, the Wilco (and before that, Uncle Tupelo) frontman walks you through pretty much every question you might have about writing a song of your own. From anxiety that you’ll suck—you totally will, at first—to the fear of exposing your inner feelings—accept it, writing songs means getting vulnerable—Tweedy helps you get out of your head and in front of your notebook or voice recorder.  We found ourselves highlighting and adding bookmarks.

    Apple (Best Books of October)

    In four carefully crafted sections, renowned songwriter, musician, and performer Tweedy explains the mysteries of the ‘ephemeral’ process of writing a song, from inspiration to process, suppressing one’s annoying ego, and disappearing in the work …. Observing Tweedy’s glowingly creative mind at work throughout this seriously fun book is truly illuminating.

    Booklist

    Praise for Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back)

    Wildly entertaining… Breathtaking…Unforgettable…Tweedy’s music has never shied away from darkness, but he’s also never been afraid to celebrate joy. The same is true with this remarkable memoir—it’s a wonderful book, alternately sorrowful and triumphant, and it’s a gift not just to his fans, but to anyone who cares about American rock music.

    NPR.org

    Let’s Go is especially enlightening, a rock’n’roll book that quietly dismantles what we expect from rock’n’roll books.

    Pitchfork

    Illuminating…a compelling portrait of an artist whose everyman nature proves to be anything but a front.

    AV Club

    [Tweedy] succeeds in entertaining and oddly revealing ways, moving with shape-shifting ease from wry self-effacement to what he calls Midwestern sarcasm to naked confession.

    Chicago Tribune

    Laced with funny anecdotes… Readers might sometimes wonder at Tweedy’s lyrics, but in his playing, singing and writing, whether in solo efforts, in collaboration with Wilco or in his producing other artists, we know we have something to treasure.

    Associated Press

    In its willingness to probe the most vulnerable periods in his past, though, [Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back)] is of a piece with Tweedy’s revered songwriting.

    Vanity Fair

    Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back) reads more like a collection of humorously confessional essays by David Sedaris than a conventional rock memoir.

    Uproxx

    Engaging and self-questioning.

    The Philadelphia Inquirer

    The Wilco front man has just written one of the best and most revealing memoirs in years…Let’s Go is a warts-and-all addiction memoir, but luckily it is much more than that, too. It’s also a genuinely moving ode to his wife and two sons (one of whom, Spencer, is the drummer in his side project Tweedy), and an impassioned and often quite funny firsthand account of a music geek’s coming of age.

    The Ringer

    Though Tweedy’s lyrics tend to be oblique, his new memoir is anything but.

    Men’s Journal

    We already knew Jeff Tweedy could write…We didn’t know Tweedy could write an entire book, and do it really well. But with the arrival of his new memoir, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back), out last week, it’s clear Tweedy is just as adept at writing nonfiction as he is songs. Let’s Go is a dry-witted examination of Tweedy’s personal life and career so enjoyable even the most casual of fans will be hooked.

    Paste

    By turns self-deprecating, sincere, hilarious, and harrowing.

    The Boston Globe

    A funny and candid addition to the rock-memoir genre.

    Newsweek

    Funny and frank.

    Entertainment Weekly

    Engaging and self-questioning.

    Philadelphia Inquirer

    A memoir every bit as openhearted and captivating as [Tweedy’s] best songwriting…Even the most difficult events in this page-turner are edged with humor and the hindsight of someone looking back from a better place. Though stories of contemporary musicians occupy a crowded field, this one’s a cut above the rest. Tweedy proves himself delightful company, and, as with his music, readers will hear this resonating long after they’ve finished.

    Library Journal (starred review)

    Tweedy writes movingly about his parents, his wife and children, and his desire to find an artistic home for his band. Thoughtful, earnest reflections on family, creative integrity, and a life in music.

    Kirkus

    Tweedy will delight fans by sharing such tidbits as his favorite moment in the Wilco documentary and how a Noah’s Ark analogy powered the Grammy-winning A Ghost Is Born album. Tweedy tells a wonderfully unassuming story of a music-filled life.

    Publishers Weekly
  • Books by Jeff Tweedy

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