From '70s-inspired alt-country heroes to folksy, Depression-era revivalists to artsy, experimental roots-rockers, right back to the '70s again -- critics have always been quick to point out Wilco's propensity for never sounding like quite the same band from album to album.
And with good reason: Wilco often isn't quite the same band from album to album.
Since rising from the ashes of Uncle Tupelo in the mid-'90s, Wilco has gone through a number of lineup changes, a few of which -- like the abrupt ousting of longtime multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett captured in the 2002 documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart -- played out in a pretty public way.
Renowned avant-garde guitarist Nels Cline was among three of the new recruits farmed in a few years ago, in a move that left frontman Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt the only remaining original members. Despite the frequent shakeups, Cline says the move has so far proven a perfect fit for him.
"Certainly there are differences," says Cline, who's collaborated in the past with punk heroes Mike Watt and Sonic Youth, and most notably with then-partner Carla Bozulich in The Geraldine Fibbers. "But the main difference with Wilco is it's steady work.
"We're working our butts off, but it's easier to work our butts off if we have a cushy bus to go back to afterwards, as opposed to a crappy van."
Not that Cline -- recently named one of the Top 20 New Guitar Gods by Rolling Stone -- completely buys the theory that Wilco is as chameleonic as some have suggested.
"I think what we're doing with this band is pretty much the same," he says. "To me, the only thing that changes is the aesthetic of the new material."
When Cline and Wilco play their second Winnipeg show in just over a year next week (they played a Canada Day gig at the Burt in 2006), it'll be in support of the recently released Sky Blue Sky, which many are hailing as a return to the band's '70s-sounding, AM-radio-inspired roots.
Less experimental than, say, A Ghost is Born or the acclaimed (but famously very-nearly shelved) Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Sky Blue Sky has been garnering comparison to everyone from The Byrds to The Beatles to Television (the latter thanks to Cline's jazzy, piercing guitar work).
It was also the result of a much more collaborative process than in the past -- Tweedy is notorious for being a control freak -- though Cline insists the band didn't set out to make a throwback record.
"The only vision for the album I ever heard was that Jeff was hoping we could do something more uplifting than depressing," Cline laughs. "But there was no concerted effort to make a cohesive '70s record, no."
And what of Tweedy, whose battles with depression, anxiety and addiction to painkillers were also played out in public a few years back? How's he doing these days?
"Splendidly, other than the fact his new addiction seems to be a health kick," laughs Cline. "He runs a lot, he takes hikes -- in fact, he fractured his tibia a few years ago because of that. He's always overdoing things. But he's great."
