Watch Wilco’s Nels Cline perform a hair-raising guest solo onstage with Japanese Breakfast
The guitarist joined Michelle Zauner at the close of her set at Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival this weekend
Nels Cline was invited onstage during Japanese Breakfast’s performance at Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, MA on Saturday (May 28) and produced a genuinely epic guitar solo for the occasion.
Cline joined Japanese Breakfast – the moniker and band name for songwriter and guitarist Michelle Zauner – for the penultimate song of their set, Posing For Cars to improvise a reported five-minute solo.
Fan footage of the event shows various clips of Cline’s contribution and it is indeed a remarkable thing: airy, exploratory and full of clever changes of pace, from shreddy counter-melodies to spine-tingling bends.
We didn’t think you could describe a five-minute lead workout as restrained, but somehow Cline manages to make it all sit gracefully within the wider framework of the track.
It’s characteristic of a player who last year told Guitar World he “had no desire to gyrate and hump my amplifier and set my guitar on fire – I wanted to take a modest path”.
Indeed, at points Cline seems to be almost shuffling off stage in an effort to avoid taking the spotlight. It clearly went down well with Zauner, who took to Twitter soon after to register: “Nels Cline just ripped a fucking solo on my fucking song.”
We had pretty much the same reaction! pic.twitter.com/kQErutUYQ4May 29, 2022
Fortunately, Zauner was later given the chance to return the favor, when she appeared onstage during Wilco’s headline set later that day to perform vocals on Jesus Etc., from the band’s landmark 2001 album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
And you did a sweet job returning the favor on Jesus Etc. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/QAa7ufBOMRMay 29, 2022
Meanwhile, Cline and the rest of Wilco are keeping busy, having just released their huge new 21-track album, Cruel Country, which they performed in its entirety across the first of their two sets at Solid Sound Festival, on May 27.
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**
Join now for unlimited access
US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year
UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year
Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Matt is Features Editor for GuitarWorld.com. Before that he spent 10 years as a freelance music journalist, interviewing artists for the likes of Total Guitar, Guitarist, Guitar World, MusicRadar, NME.com, DJ Mag and Electronic Sound. In 2020, he launched CreativeMoney.co.uk, which aims to share the ideas that make creative lifestyles more sustainable. He plays guitar, but should not be allowed near your delay pedals.