@slaw
Agreed, I have seen them about a dozen and a half times and met Jay briefly at a solo show in Austin that was in between Straightaways and Wide Swing (I think).
I was an Uncle Tupelo fan prior and when they split I actually think Son Volt is the better band (at least for the first 3 records) and I like Jay more than Tweedy as a song writer. I am really not much of a Wilco fan.
I would have told anyone for many years that Trace was my favorite collection of songs on one record. It is incredible.
But from a playback perspective, my copy of Straightaways smokes Trace.
They went kinda wonky after Wide Swing and I was not happy that it really became a solo effort for a while as I really liked the Boquist brothers, they are super talented. And the pedal player from the Jayhawks, who's name escapes me at the moment.
They are not super exciting live but can be damn good.
Pablo