Back on October 28, 2021, Wilco got inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall Of Fame — as did Lucinda Williams and Alejandro Escovedo — and there was a big ceremony to honor the Hall’s newest members. Highlights from the event are being aired in a PBS special on January 8, and now two clips from it have been shared (via Consequence).
In one of them, Wilco is joined by Japanese Breakfast, Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Escovedo, Rosanne Cash, Sheila E., and others for a performance of “California Stars,” from Wilco and Billy Bragg’s collaborative 1998 album Mermaid Avenue. Also unveiled today was a video of Bill Callahan performing Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky.”
Wilco and Japanese Breakfast have some shared history: Japanese Breakfast has covered Wilco before, like she did at Lollapalooza in 2019, and last year, Tweedy returned the favor by covering “Kokomo, IN.” Michelle Zauner was floored by that, as she wrote on Instagram, “Words can’t begin to express how mind blowing it is to discover this vid of Jeff Tweedy covering Kokomo, IN. Wilco has been such a huge influence on my music for so many years. The arrangement of Jesus, etc was the elegant perfection we strived for when we were recording Kokomo. The narrative arc of Posing For Cars and my need to solo for three mins was directly inspired by At Least That’s What You Said. I freaking walked off the aisle to She’s A Jar. I just can’t even handle it and had to share. F*ck.”
Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time that Wilco and Isbell have performed “California Stars” together, as Isbell previously joined the group to play the track at Mountain Jam 2016.
Watch Wilco and company perform “California Stars” above.