The Autumn Defense

As Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy put it so bluntly in the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart in reference to firing multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett, “A circle can only have one center.” Maybe that’s why Wilco bassist John Stirratt has scratched his creative itches with fellow Wilco member Pat Sansone in side project The Autumn Defense. The band traffics in unapologetic soft rock, the kind of smooth sounds peddled in the ’70s by Bread and, to a lesser extent, The Byrds. With Wilco obviously occupying much of the duo’s time, its output has remained light up to this point—2003’s Circles and a self-titled album in 2007. But the band finally got the chance to put together its third album, last year’s Once Around.

Updated 08/24/2011