A review by jwinchell
Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. by Jeff Tweedy

5.0

I can’t recall reading any other music-related memoir, so it was all new to me to bear witness to this musician I have long admired break down his musical empire in ways that I could understand. Tweedy’s memoir is a conversation with the reader. The first chapter, in which he falls all over himself explaining what he wants to do and not do in the book, and the Epilogue, in which he pulls the title all together with the stories he’s told, are consistent with the many times he directly asks the reader a question or otherwise addresses us. I loved the chronicle of his life and the evolution of his creativity- childhood musical allure, Jay Farrar and Uncle Tupelo, Wilco and Jay Bennett, all the albums I’ve known and loved, his boys, his new solo album. He writes compellingly about how he makes music and why. Addiction is a major part of the story he tells; I found his rawness so refreshing and relatable after having a total breakdown in my early 40s as well. I felt so nostalgic for the days in which I discovered Wilco and listened to them all the time, and then also for the days when my now husband introduced me to Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt. Whatever old band mates or others might say about his weaknesses and bullshit (which sometimes I felt lurking under the surface of the stories he told of times gone bad), I feel so enriched this conversation with Jeff Tweedy and I’m so grateful he’s still making music that is important to my life.