Jeff Tweedy, Vic Theatre, 2/15/14

Jeff Tweedy, Vic Theatre, 2/15/14, a set on Flickr.

Jeff's annual solo education benefit show. A talented and funny man.

Glenn Kotche's "Instrumental Touch" Faucet Commercial

Pitchfork via Adam Reach

Jeff Tweedy Sings The Handsome Family

At Jeff Tweedy's annual school benefit show, he played requests from the first thirty people in line waiting to get in. One brilliant person requested the sublime "So Much Wine" by The Handsome Family. It was a beautiful version, and without a whole lot of trouble, you can find him singing it on the internet. Here's a little writing by somebody else about the night and my cell phone pic of him singing it. Sublime.

Here's The Handsome Family's take on their own, most covered song.

Free Handsome Family MP3s from Magnet

For their year end, Magnet has been posting snippets from recent guest editors. They chose to feature The Handsome Family on New Year's Eve.

The Handsome Family recently self-released Scattered: A Further Collection Of Lost Demos, Orphaned Songs And Odd Covers. It's only available from their website,

but you’ll be able to buy it at the duo’s upcoming West Coast shows, which kick off January 19. If you’ve never seen the Handsome Family live, trust us: You need to.

Download the two Scattered tracks “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” and “Drinking Beer On The Roof” by following this link to the Magnet website.

And if you happen to already have tickets to Wilco's upcoming Boulder, CO shows, please be sure to get there early and enjoy the excellent opening act.

How I Got Nolan Ryan's Autograph

I have been down in Texas on and off over the last six months helping care for a sick family member. On Wednesday, we were in Austin and my wife, Julia, noticed that Wilco were playing and managed to get us into the show through Jeff's wife Susan.

When we arrived at the new Cedar Park Center (aka. hockey rink), not only did our last minute plea net us tickets, but they ended up being fifth row center! Wow!

About two-thirds of the way through the set, Jeff walked up to mic with a baseball in a plexiglass tube and announced that the band had all been given baseballs autographed by Nolan Ryan. Predictably, especially in Texas, people went nuts. Jeff asked if they were all nuts thinking he was going to throw a hard and pointy object out into a sea of people.

Jeff then announced that he was going to choose the recipient, and then spoke to a guy in the front row, who I will not call poor because, well, we was sitting in the front row. He said that he would like to hand the ball to him and have him pass it back to the person behind him, and that person should pass it back and so on until it got back to the guy in the striped shirt, "and his name is Patrick."

And he did. And they did.

And that's how I got Nolan Ryan's autograph in one of the weirdest and coolest concert experiences I have had in a life of cool concert experiences.