Bennett Quits Wilco

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Multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett has left Wilco to work on a solo project he plans to release next year. His departure is a "mutual decision" according to management. Bennett is the second member of Wilco to leave this year, following drummer Ken Coomer's exit in January.

Bennett, formerly of Titanic Love Affair, joined Wilco as a guitarist shortly after the band recorded their debut album, 1995's A.M., and added keyboards to the band's next two albums, "Being There" and "Summer Teeth," as well as taking on an increased role in the writing and arrangement of the songs with frontman Jeff Tweedy. He also appears on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco's fourth album, which had initially been slated for a summer release. But the band parted ways with the label this week and is currently being courted by a slew of prospective labels, as it searches for a new record deal.

Bennett's departure will not affect Wilco's fall tour, which begins September 21st in Dallas. The band will forge on with Tweedy, bassist John Stirratt, new drummer Glenn Kotche and touring utility player Leroy Bach.

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Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

More Song Stories entries »

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