Bennett Quits Wilco

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

“Helen Wheels”

Paul McCartney | 1973

A rollicking good-time hard rocker, "Helen Wheels" was not about a woman but about Paul McCartney's Land Rover, the anthemic chorus voicing the vehicle's reckless joy as "she" took to the road. The song was added to the U.S. version of Band on the Run but was issued only as a single in McCartney's native U.K. "I like that because it's a British road song and there's not many of those around," said McCartney. "It's always Route 66. But Carlisle? How many songs have got Carlisle in them?"

More Song Stories entries »

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