Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key (1998) – Billy Bragg & Wilco (Woody Guthrie)

In 1998, Billy Bragg & Wilco released Mermaid Avenue, an iconic album built around previously unheard lyrics written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie. They did a wonderful job breathing music into these words and bringing them into the light of day. Guthrie’s recording career was more or less over by the late 1940s, but his daughter Nora approached Billy Bragg in 1995 about setting Woody’s handwritten, unrecorded lyrics to music.

Following the success of Mermaid Avenue (1998), a second and third volume of recordings were released in 2000 and 2012 respectively. The project culminated in Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions. A DVD containing the documentary Man in the Sand (1999), which functions as both a biography of Guthrie and a chronicle of the making of Billy Bragg & Wilco’s Mermaid Avenue, is included as a fourth disc. You can view the entire documentary here.

When you hear today’s featured song, Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key, it really does feel as though Woody’s voice and music have been spookily transfigured and projected through the song. Woody’s lyrics here are, well, just so Woody: humorous, tongue-in-cheek, with a lovely turn of phrase and a heavy dose of Americana imagery.

The music has a slow swing: simple acoustic rhythm, led by Billy Bragg’s rustic voice, with a wistful organ in the background and Natalie Merchant’s haunting backing vocals. It serves the lyrics so well, don’t you think? Like the rest of the album, the song sounds as though it has been dug up and unearthed from a 1940s time capsule. Mermaid Avenue is truly a collectable keepsake, and I’m so glad I bought it when it came out and can still dust off these timeless songs.

[Verse 1]
I lived in a place called Okfuskee
And I had a little girl in a holler tree
I said, “Little girl, it’s plain to see
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me“

[Verse 2]
She said, “It’s hard for me to see
How one little boy got so ugly”
Yes, my little girly, that might be
But there ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me

[Chorus]
Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
There ain’t nobody that can sing like me

[Verse 3]
We walked down by the Buckeye Creek
To see the frog eat the goggle-eye bee
To hear that west wind whistle to the east
There ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me

[Verse 4]
Oh my little girly, will you let me see?
Way over yonder where the wind blows free
Nobody can see in our holler tree
And there ain’t nobody can sing like me
Ain’t nobody can sing like me

[Chorus]
Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
There ain’t nobody that can sing like me

[Verse 5]
Her mama cut a switch from a cherry tree
And laid it on to she and me
It stung lots worse than a hive of bees
But there ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me

[Verse 6]
Now I have walked a long long ways
And I still look back to my tanglewood days
I’ve led lots of girls since then to stray
Saying ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me

[Chorus]

References:
1. Mermaid Avenue – Wikipedia