#matt sweeney

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Troy with the Post-Pop pre-show dance moves

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Homme & Sweeney synced during Post Pop Depression tour

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All One Song - "Barstool Blues" with Matt Sweeney

We’ve covered a lot of Shakey ground so far during All One Song seasons one and two, leaping from decade to decade, from era to era, from album to album. It’s easy to do when you’re dealing with a body of work that is so vast, spanning 60 years now. But somehow, we’ve yet to talk about any songs from Zuma. Which is weird! Neil fanatics — like our hero — can be an ornery, contrarian bunch. It would be tough to get them to agree on anything. But I think I’m safe in saying that everyone loves Zuma. If you don’t … well, you’re crazier than Crazy Horse.  

Released in late 1975, Zuma is one of Neil’s ultimate statements, an album that contains virtually everything that we love about him. It’s got visionary guitar epics, doomy dirges, groovy country rock, devastated acoustic ballads, stoned rambles … and more! It sounds good first thing in the morning, it sounds good late at night. It sounds good when you’re all alone and it sounds good at a party. Hey, I like this album so much that I might even be able to work up a cohesive defense of “Stupid Girl.” Maybe! Maybe not, I don’t know.

But we’re not talking about “Stupid Girl” today! No, we’re talking about “Barstool Blues,” one of Zuma’s many high points. It’s just three short verses and a hair under three minutes long, but “Barstool Blues” contains pain, transcendence, terror, beauty and some of the sweetest guitar playing of Neil’s entire career … how did he do it?

Here to help us try to answer that question today is Matt Sweeney. Matt is one of those guys who is impossible to sum up. He’s a musician who has been a part of so many great bands, projects and records over the years — Superwolf, Chavez, Guided by Voices, the Hard Quartet, Iggy Pop, Current 93, Cass McCombs, Andrew WK … the list goes on and on. He’s a consummate collaborator. I think Matt is the only person alive to have played with both Johnny Cash and Endless Boogie …  with both the Dixie Chicks and Baby Dee … with both Adele and Six Organs of Admittance. Matt also hosts the excellent Guitar Moves web series, which gets into fascinating discussions with a wide array of guitarists. Definitely dial it up when you get a chance; even if you don’t play, it is always a blast.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts!

Bonus Track: Neil brought back "Barstool Blues" occasionally in the 1980s — here he is playing it with Crazy Horse at the Catalyst in '84; here's a honky-tonkin' International Harvesters version from 1985; and best of all, a 1989 acoustic rendition with Poncho and Ben.

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"The Desert Sessions"

1. Josh Homme and Billy Gibbons in Joshua Tree, California

2. Rancho de la Luna Recording Studio (Joshua Tree, California)

3. Matt Sweeney, Libby Grace, Stella Mozgawa, Billy Gibbons, Carla Azar, and Josh Homme

(📷 1, 2 & 3 by Arnaud Pyvka)

4. Dave Catching

(📷 by Andreas Neumann)

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St. Vincent | Guitar Moves

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Matt Sweeney and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's collaboration, Superwolf, was released on 25 January 2005.

Sweeney had played guitar in Will Oldham's touring band for a few years, and Oldham encouraged Sweeney to write songs, providing the music to Oldham's lyrics.

Superwolf was named by Pitchfork as one of the best albums of 2005, and Spin named Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Matt Sweeney's collaboration as one of "Rock's 25 Greatest Team-ups."

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The Hard Quartet – Webster Hall – October 17, 2024

Stephen Malkmus (bass, guitar, vocals), Chavez’s Matt Sweeney (bass, guitar, vocals), the Cairo Gang’s Emmett Kelly (bass, guitar, vocals) and Dirty Three’s Jim White (drums, vocals) teamed up to form the Hard Quartet and began jamming together in 2023. And following the release of their eponymous debut album — “cosmically trippy joy” — two weeks ago, last night, they filled Webster Hall with that very same joy.

The Hard Quartet played the album in full and then doubled down on “Action for Military Boys” with its chorus played as a jam and the show’s encore.

(Plus, Sweeney regaled the crowd with a story about seeing the Replacements at Webster Hall when it was still known as the Ritz and asking Bob Stinson outside the venue what it was like being in a band. The guitarist told him that it was cool and that he always had $20 in his pocket — and that answer “ruined” Sweeney’s life.)

Photos courtesy of Edwina Hay | thisisnotaphotograph.com

@thesearenotphotographs