Wilco performing at the 2013 Bonnaroo Music Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. (Photo by Jason Merritt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cHe spoke at Spencer\u2019s Bar Mitzvah, and we had had lots of contact with him at our temple, before he retired and even after he retired he spent a lot of time there,\u201d Tweedy said. \u201cSo he played a role in the kids\u2019 interest in Judaism and I\u2019m a deep admirer of his theology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schaalman, who passed away at the age of 100 in 2017, was a legendary figure in the Reform movement. A native of Munich, Germany, he was one of five rabbis Leo Baeck brought to the U.S. in 1935 to study at Hebrew Union College. A leader in the movement for much of the 20th century, Schaalman went public towards the end of his life about having changed the ways he felt about his faith, which included questioning his belief in God.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really moved by that. A lot of people\u2019s views \u2026 on religion and things like that tend to calcify as people get older,\u201d Tweedy said of Schaalman. \u201cAnd his thinking was so nimble right up until the end that it allowed him to basically come up with a theology where it wasn\u2019t pessimistic, it was more like \u2018we don\u2019t need a lot of [God] to be good,\u2019 and I thought that was kind of an inspiring message for a world that\u2019s trying to integrate religious beliefs and secular beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conversion process also required Tweedy to partake in a certain painful traditional ritual. He didn\u2019t go over his circumcision story again in detail, but as he told NPR\u2019s \u201cWait Wait Don\u2019t Tell Me\u201d show last year, it involved a storage closet at his temple, a black operating bag and a mohel who afterwards told him that his sons were big fans.<\/p>\n
Tweedy described the synagogue as a place where he\u2019s simply known as \u201cthe father of Spencer and Sammy,\u201d not a celebrity.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou eventually blend in as a parent, and a citizen,\u201d Tweedy said of the synagogue. \u201cMy experience with the temple, I think, has been pretty typical of most people\u2019s. It\u2019s just another wonderful group of supportive people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tweedy sang at both of his sons\u2019 bar mitzvahs, and he even brought along Mavis Staples, with whom he had been collaborating at the time, to sing at his younger son\u2019s ceremony. He said the \u201cpretty liberal\u201d Reform environment leaves plenty of room for music (especially folk music) to be integrated into prayer. The synagogue also boasts a \u201csemi-professional\u201d klezmer group called the Ham-It-Up Band.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of free-wheeling and spontaneous music that happens there, that I imagine isn\u2019t typical of a more regimented congregation,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
In his book, Tweedy talks about how one of the first songs he ever loved as a kid was The Byrds\u2019 \u201cTurn! Turn! Turn!,\u201d a 1960s folk\/pop song whose lyrics were adapted almost entirely from The Book of Ecclesiastes by Pete Seeger. Some synagogues even use the song as part of their Rosh Hashanah services.<\/p>\n
Tweedy’s memoir.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
On his new album, a song called \u201cLet\u2019s Go Rain\u201d references \u201cNoah\u2019s flood\u201d and includes the lyric \u201cNow once upon a time I was a Christian.\u201d Later it states: \u201cOh I should build a wooden ark\/wouldn\u2019t you rather live on an ocean of guitars?\u201d<\/p>\n
The book and album, Tweedy explained, are the product of Wilco taking time off for various reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe book was mostly because I\u2019d been presented with an opportunity to do it and I wasn\u2019t confident that I would get that opportunity again, so it felt like a challenge to see if I could put together something that was interesting, to share with everybody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But the songwriter is getting back to his main band very soon. The group announced some tour dates through the summer (including at an annual festival the band created in 2010, Solid Sound, held in North Adams, Massachusetts) and fall, which will likely continue into next year.<\/p>\n
Tweedy also told JTA that the band has started planning their 11th studio album, something he hasn\u2019t confirmed elsewhere yet.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Tweedy\u2019s solo tour starts up again Feb. 27 in Iowa City, Iowa, and continues through April 18; see the full tour dates here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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