As Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy performs June 6 at the College of Charleston Cistern Yard as part of Spoleto Festival USA, Jenny Ferrara will be finishing up her shift eight blocks north at Philosophers & Fools.
The cofounder of the bookstore/bar on Bogard Street, funded partially by a Kickstarter campaign, has been thinking plenty about the band’s frontman in the past few weeks. That’s because she and six frequent customers read Tweedy’s most recent memoir – World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music – as part of a special Spoleto Festival book club reading.
Ferrara also found herself listening to Tweedy, Wilco and his old band Uncle Tupelo before the May meeting, finding hits from classic albums like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
“I was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna start familiarizing myself a little bit more,’ and I definitely recognized some songs,” she said.
Took on a life of its own
The Philosophers & Fools reading and discussion took on a life of its own on May 18, complete with a book-specific playlist and an extra book club meeting in addition to its usual monthly session.
This unusual approach is in keeping with Tweedy’s career, as writers who have talked to him will attest. John Lingan, a music writer who interviewed Tweedy in 2018 for The Washington Post, said he doesn’t think Tweedy has ever made a creative decision for any other reason than to be honest with his creativity. In addition to three memoirs, Tweedy has written frequently for The New York Times and has his own Substack publication.
In the 2018 interview with Lingan, Tweedy said he and Wilco “stopped using any kind of road map a long time ago.” Lingan said this quote can be instructive for Tweedy’s artistic career.
“I do think that cutting against expectations one way or the other has been a very important part of his career,” Lingan said, “from the very earliest time.”
The conversation between Ferrara and her discussion group members mirrored Tweedy’s tendency to upend assumptions.
A playlist is born
Adding to the meeting’s unconventional nature was a Spotify playlist that Ferrara found with all the songs Tweedy had mentioned in his book. As tunes like Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” and 10cc’s “I’m Not in Love” washed over the room, she noticed that the conversation would change each time a new song came on.
Ferrara said the group discussed how songs have the ability to transport people instantly to certain times and places in their memories. It also debated whether the perfect song exists. In the book, Tweedy argues that the notion of a perfect song is tied to one’s own past experiences. For him, it’s the Wizard of Oz song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” sung by Judy Garland.
But the whole idea felt less clear-cut to Ferrara, who couldn’t determine whether there is such a thing as a 10/10 track.
“No, I mean, I think it’s subjective,” said Ferrara, who was prompted by the passage to think about her own memories of viewing not just Oz but also Garland’s other films.
“Sure, musically, there probably is. I’m not a musicologist, so that would be someone else’s expertise. But I think it’s again probably tied to a memory.”
To Ferrara, the shifts in the larger discussion that came with each new song on the playlist pointed to how both the book and Tweedy himself could turn on a dime into a wider world of music.
She noted the memoir features a wide range of songs spanning various styles and genres. “I thought it was a great book for anyone who is a fan of his or just a music lover to kind of pick up.”
IF YOU WANT TO GO: Jeff Tweedy performs 9 p.m. June 6, College of Charleston Cistern Yard, 66 George St. A limited number of tickets, $63 to $104, may be available.
Henry O’Brien is an arts journalism and communications graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
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