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Indie-Outing: Wilco

Name: Nels Cline, Glenn Kotche

Band: Wilco

Instrument: Guitar (Cline), Drums (Kotche)

Indie-Jam connection: An independent-minded band that blurs the lines between rock and Americana, Wilco has hovered over the indie-jam party line for years: the band toured with H.O.R.D.E., played early Bonnaroo festivals and even jammed on “Ripple” with Phil Lesh in 1999. While several members of the band cite jambands as friends and influences, the band’s most direct connections to the modern jam-word are via guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Glenn Kotche. Both musicians lead parallel careers in the experimental jazz world and share a common love of improvisational music. Their solo work has also placed them at jam-centric festivals like High Sierra and Summer Camp

Seminal jam moments: Among his jam sit ins, Nels Cline played some Dylan songs with Scaring the Children and Keller Williams at Mill Valley, CA’s Throckmorton Theatre on 10/8/2007. Kotche has shared the stage with fellow Chicago improvisers Umphrey’s McGee and its side bands several times over the years. His most famous collaboration with the band may be his cow bell on a cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” at Indianapolis, IN’s Egyptian Room on February 25, 2006.

Lot Talk: “As twins growing up and both obsessed with music, my twin brother Alex and I didn’t really listen to the same things. Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Jethro Tull, Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer were his bands and then I was more into Traffic, Johnny Winter and Hendrix. I think The Dead was the only time we crossed over with one guy buying into a band and then the other guy getting into it. He started out with the Dead albums like Live/Dead and then when Workingman’s Dead came out I got that. So I think that’s the only time that I can think of where we switched,” Nels Cline, Jambands.com