Edward Burch

Last updated September 20, 2019

Edward Burch (born June 9, 1968 in Centreville, Illinois) is an American musician and journalist. As a guitarist, he is a founding member of alternative country band The Kennett Brothers and, as a suitcase player, of the quasi-skiffle combo The Viper and His Famous Orchestra. He has been a longtime collaborator of former Titanic Love Affair and Wilco multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett.^[1] He is also a regular contributor to such advocacy journalism outlets as Clamor and Pamphlet, as well as Harp and No Depression magazines.

Centreville is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,309 in 2010, down from 5,951 at the 2000 census.

The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that usually has six strings. It is typically played with both hands by strumming or plucking the strings with either a guitar pick or the finger(s)/fingernails of one hand, while simultaneously fretting with the fingers of the other hand. The sound of the vibrating strings is projected either acoustically, by means of the hollow chamber of the guitar, or through an electrical amplifier and a speaker.

Alternative country, or alternative country rock is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and rock music, which includes acts that differ significantly in style from mainstream country music and pop country music. Alternative country artists are often influenced by alternative rock. However, the term has been used to describe country music bands and artists that have incorporated influences from alternative rock, indie rock, roots rock, bluegrass, neotraditional country, punk rock, rockabilly, punkabilly, honky-tonk, outlaw country, folk rock, indie folk, folk revival, hard rock, R&B, country rock, heartland rock, and Southern rock.

Downstate

Burch grew up near St. Louis as part of a West Central Illinois musical cohort that included nearby Belleville, Illinois's Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar (of Uncle Tupelo and later, respectively, Wilco and Son Volt). As an undergraduate and graduate student at the flagship campus of the University of Illinois, Burch entered a burgeoning Champaign-Urbana scene that included bands such as Poster Children, Menthol, Hum, and Braid. Burch performed with a number of groups during this time, including Bitter Homes and Gardens, The Kennett Brothers, The Corn Likkers, and The Viper and His Famous Orchestra. It was also during this time (as early as 1994) that he began his writing and home studio recording collaborations with Jay Bennett that would eventually see light as 2002's The Palace at 4 a.m. (Part 1).

Belleville is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, coterminous with the now defunct Belleville Township. The population was 42,034 according to the Census Bureau's 2015 estimates.

Jeffrey Scot Tweedy is an American songwriter, musician, and record producer best known as the singer and guitarist of the band Wilco. Tweedy, originally from Belleville, Illinois, started his music career in high school in his band The Plebes with Jay Farrar, which subsequently transitioned into the alternative country band Uncle Tupelo. After Uncle Tupelo broke up Tweedy formed Wilco which found critical and commercial success, most notably with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, the latter of which received a Grammy for Best Alternative Album in 2005.

Jay Farrar is an American songwriter and musician currently based in St. Louis. A veteran of two critically acclaimed music groups, Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, he began his solo music career in 2001. Beyond his established talents as a songwriter, he is a guitarist, pianist, harmonicist, and a vocalist.

Chicago

Burch briefly relocated to Chicago in the early aughts, where he had a standing Monday-night gig at The Hideout, a center of the Chicago alt-country scene. At The Hideout, he could be heard performing with the likes of multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach, violinist Andrew Bird, and The Handsome Family. In 2000, Burch compiled, produced, and played on a collection of Champaign/Chicago Christmas-themed recordings entitled Santa Is Real, its Burch-designed cover a yuletide parody of the Louvin Brothers' country gospel classic, Satan Is Real. In addition to tracks by the Kennetts, the Viper, and Burch (including his haunting version of the Johnny Marks tune "There's Always Tomorrow" from the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer television special), the collection featured recordings by Wilco alumns Bennett, Bach, and John Stirratt.

The Hideout Inn, also known as The Hideout, is a music venue and former factory bar located in an industrial area between the Lincoln Park and Bucktown neighborhoods of Chicago in the Elston Avenue Industrial Corridor. It has been a key Chicago live music venue since it was purchased by friends Tim and Katie Tuten and Mike and Jim Hinchsliff in 1996. When not hosting live music or other events, for some years the Hideout continued to operate as a local neighborhood bar, but as of 2018 is only open in the evenings.

LeRoy Fredrick Bach is an American musician, composer, and music producer. He has hosted musical gatherings, fostered musical collaborations, and led bands in Chicago since 1990. Bach is perhaps best known for his work as a multi-instrumentalist in the band Wilco from 1997 through 2004.

Andrew Bird American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist

Andrew Wegman Bird is an American indie rock multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Since 1996, he has released 15 studio albums, as well as several live albums and EPs, spanning various genres including swing music, indie rock, and folk music. He is primarily known for his unique style of violin playing, accompanied by loop and effect pedals, whistling, and voice. In the '90s, he sang and played violin in several jazz ensembles, including Squirrel Nut Zippers and Kevin O'Donnell's Quality Six. He went on to start his own swing ensemble, Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, which released three albums between 1998 and 2001. Weather Systems (2003) was his first solo album, and a departure from jazz music into indie music.

The Palace at 4 a.m. (Part I)

As Bennett's time with Wilco drew to a close (very publicly documented in the Sam Jones film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart ), and on the same day on which Wilco's 2002 recording Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released, Bennett and Burch released The Palace at 4 a.m. (Part 1) through Chicago's Undertow Records, to generally strong reviews. Rolling Stone's David Fricke wrote: "If there is a Part II to this pop sunshine, may it come soon."

Sam Jones is a Los Angeles-based photographer and director whose portraits of U.S. President Barack Obama, Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Bob Dylan, Kristen Stewart, Robert Downey Jr., Amy Adams, and Jack Nicholson have appeared on the covers of Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Esquire, GQ, Time, Entertainment Weekly and Men's Journal.

<i>Yankee Hotel Foxtrot</i> 2001 studio album by Wilco

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the fourth album by Chicago-based rock band Wilco. The album was completed in 2001, but Reprise Records, a Warner Music Group label, refused to release it. Wilco acquired the rights to the album when they subsequently left the label. On September 18, 2001, Wilco streamed the entire album for free on their website. Wilco signed with Nonesuch Records in November of that year, and the album was officially released on April 23, 2002.

Rolling Stone is an American monthly magazine that focuses on popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, who is still the magazine's publisher, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its musical coverage of rock music and for political reporting by Hunter S. Thompson. In the 1990s, the magazine broadened and shifted its focus to a younger readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors, and popular music. It has returned to its traditional mix of content, including music, entertainment, and politics.

Journalism

While Burch continued to perform in the mid-aughts, he has turned his efforts increasingly to political, advocacy, and cultural journalism, writing especially for the short-lived Champaign alternative The Paper, Clamor , and Pamphlet (an online journal Burch founded with fellow Champaign writer Jenny Southlynn). Burch's published interviews are with subjects as diverse as people's historian Howard Zinn and 1960s folk icon Dick Smothers. Pamphlet provided a wide-ranging forum in which Burch's reporting on the adoption of tasers by local police can sit comfortably next to his listener's guide to the music of T. Rex.

Clamor was a bi-monthly magazine published in Toledo, Ohio. The focus of the magazine was alternative culture, often from a politically left-wing perspective.

Howard Zinn was an American historian, playwright, and socialist thinker. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn wrote over twenty books, including his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United States. In 2007, he published a version of it for younger readers, A Young People's History of the United States.

Richard Remick Smothers is an American actor, comedian, composer and musician. He is half of the musical comedy team the Smothers Brothers, with his older brother Tom.

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References

↑ "Tucson Weekly: Life After Wilco (May 30 - June 5, 2002)". www.tucsonweekly.com. Archived from the original on December 3, 2005. Retrieved 2008-08-12.

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[1] "Tucson Weekly: Life After Wilco (May 30 - June 5, 2002)". www.tucsonweekly.com. Archived from the original on December 3, 2005. Retrieved 2008-08-12.