Billy Bragg And Wilco To Release Second Album Of Woody Guthrie Songs

English protest singer Billy Bragg and Chicago country-rock band Wilco will release a second Woody Guthrie album in late May on Elektra Records.

Bragg said that the album, recorded in Dublin and currently named "Mermaid Avenue Vol. II," won't be as folky as his first Woody Guthrie album with Wilco, "Mermaid Avenue," released in 1998.

For both albums, Bragg and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett wrote new music to lyrics that the American political folk singer Guthrie penned between 1939 and 1967, but never recorded or left music for. Nora Guthrie, daughter of Woody, gave Bragg the lyrics in 1995, after having heard him perform Guthrie songs--and his own pro-labor songs--in 1992.

"It's really important that people understand that what we're doing has never been a project for the Woody Guthrie fanatic," Bragg said in a statement. "You have to approach Woody in a different way. You aren't just doing the songs that fit the legend. You have to be a bit irreverent. After all, Woody Guthrie might have been the first alternative musician.''