Nearly thirty years after Billy Bragg and Wilco first came together to give voice to a collection of previously unheard Woody Guthrie lyrics, Craft Recordings will release Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions on 11th December 2026, bringing together the three existing volumes alongside rare and previously unreleased recordings.
Available as a 7-LP + 7″ box set, 4-CD box set and digitally, The Complete Sessions adds 16 previously unreleased recordings from the original sessions, including rare demos, alternate versions and live recordings. The 7-LP set is housed in a deluxe slipcase with a booklet and includes a single-sided 7″ featuring a newly discovered 1951 home recording of Guthrie performing Hesitating Beauty, while the 4-CD set is presented in a 5.5-inch portfolio book. Both box sets feature new liner notes by author and journalist Bob Mehr.
Mermaid Avenue began with an extraordinary invitation. Nora Guthrie, daughter of legendary American folk singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie, had discovered thousands of unpublished lyrics that revealed a far more complex and multifaceted man beyond the familiar image of the Dust Bowl balladeer. “It’s been over thirty years since Nora first asked me to look at some unpublished lyrics of her father’s,” reflects Bragg. “I had no idea then that the project that she, I and Wilco undertook would lead to a complete reassessment of the legacy of Woody Guthrie.”
As Tweedy recalls, “It was an honour. I know that word gets thrown around a lot, but what greater honour could you give a songwriter than to co-write with Woody Guthrie? That was a real pinnacle of my life.” For Nora, the project was an opportunity to challenge the narrow image of her father that had become embedded in popular culture and reveal the breadth of the writing she found in his archive. “We’re not in Oklahoma anymore, Toto, this is a different Woody,” Bragg recently told Relix, explaining the significance of choosing Walt Whitman’s Niece to open the original album. “From here on out, this is a different Woody.”
The newly expanded Complete Sessions opens the archive further with a complete Alternatives & Demos disc of previously unreleased alternate versions of Aginst Th’ Law, All You Fascists, I Guess I Planted, and She Came Along To Me, alongside solo versions and demos of songs including Hesitating Beauty, Joe DiMaggio Done It Again, Hot Rod Hotel, Birds And Ships and The Unwelcome Guest. Also newly unearthed is Guthrie’s own 1951 home recording of Hesitating Beauty, bringing his voice directly into a collection devoted to the extraordinary afterlife of his unpublished words.
The collection follows a reunion this summer, when Bragg and Wilco came together at the band’s Solid Sound Festival for their first full-length concert devoted to Mermaid Avenue. Joined by Natalie Merchant, Nora Guthrie and members of the extended Guthrie family, the June performance drew from all three volumes. Taking the stage with Bragg and Tweedy, Nora told the crowd she had “been waiting 28 years” to stand there “with Billy on one arm, and Jeff on the other”, bringing the collaboration full circle.
You can pre-save/ pre-order The Complete Sessions using this link.
The collection is previewed by Aginst Th’ Law (Alternate Version), a previously unreleased recording from the sessions, which you can see below. Here’s a handy list of the unreleased tracks:
Aginst Th’ Law (Alternate Version)
All You Fascists (Alternate Version)
I Guess I Planted (Alternate Version)
She Came Along To Me (Alternate Version)
Hesitating Beauty (Solo Version)
Joe DiMaggio Done It Again (Demo)
Psalm (Demo)
Hot Rod Hotel (Demo)
Christ For President (Solo Version)
Give Me A Nail (Demo)
Long & Hard (Demo)
I Was Born (Demo)
At My Window Sad And Lonely (Solo Version)
Birds And Ships (Demo)
The Unwelcome Guest (Demo)
Airline To Heaven (Solo Version)
Hesitating Beauty (Woody’s Home Tape)
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