Context and recording
Uncle Tupelo's last album, ''
Anodyne'', featured a new lineup for the band — a five-piece outfit with
drummer Ken Coomer,
bassist John Stirratt, and
multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston.
[Kot 2004. p. 73-75] Tensions mounted between singers
Jay Farrar and
Jeff Tweedy, and Uncle Tupelo played its last concert on
May 1,
1994 at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis, Missouri.
[Last accessed June 8, 2007.][Kot 2004. p. 77] The concert included the two singers providing lead vocals on an equal amount of songs.
[Kot 2004, p. 84]
Only days after the breakup, Tweedy decided to form a new group. He was able to retain the lineup of Uncle Tupelo sans Farrar, and rechristened the band
Wilco. In mid-May, the band began to rehearse songs in the office of band manager Tony Margherita, and hired
producer Brian Paulson, who produced ''Anodyne''. Wilco first recorded demo tracks for the album at Easley studio in
Memphis,
Tennessee in June.
[Kot 2004. p. 89] Stirratt recommended the studio based on previous experience as a member of The Hilltops, and Tweedy had heard of the studio through a
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion recording.
, a subsidiary of
Warner Brothers, signed Jeff Tweedy after hearing the tapes, and recording for the album continued through August.
[Kot 2004. p. 91][Only Jeff Tweedy was signed to the label, gaining exclusive rights to publishing royalties. However, Tweedy did split a portion of these royalties with the band. See Kot 2004 p. 92.]
Jeff Tweedy was preoccupied with trying to establish Wilco as a viable band on the Reprise label and decided to add another guitarist to the band.
Brian Henneman, the lead singer for
The Bottle Rockets, was brought into the recording sessions as a lead guitarist.
[Kot 2004. p. 92] Steel guitarist Lloyd Maines and bassist Daniel Corrigan also contributed to the album. Corrigan also photographed the band for the liner booklet. Howie Weinberg
mastered the album, while Barbara Longo provided graphic design.
[''A.M.'' album notes, March 28, 1995. Reprise Records.] Brian Henneman had to leave the band shortly after recording the album, and was replaced by former Titanic Love Affair guitarist
Jay Bennett.
[Kot 2004. p. 94-5] Tweedy also attempted to create a more collaborative environment than Uncle Tupelo, requesting songwriting contributions from other members.
John Stirratt submitted three songs, hoping to become a secondary songwriter for Wilco. However, although the songs were recorded as demos, only one ("It's Just That Simple") was selected to appear on the album, and was the only Stirratt song to appear on any Wilco album.
The album's title is intended to reference
Top 40 radio stations, and the tracks reflect a straightforward country-rock sound.
The band members felt that they needed to establish themselves outside of the Tupelo fanbase. However, Tweedy later stated that in actuality, they were "trying to tread some water with a perceived audience."
Tweedy wrote a song about the Uncle Tupelo breakup, but decided that he didn't want any material on that subject matter to appear on the album.
Critic and author
Greg Kot wrote in ''
Wilco: Learning How to Die'' that "Tweedy's voice and personality are as modest as the arrangements; there's little sense of drama, and virtually no hint of risk.
Tweedy attributes some of the straightforwardness of the album to his abuse of
marijuana at the time. Shortly after the album, Tweedy stopped smoking pot, to which he credits the introspectiveness of further albums.
[Kot 2004. p. 96]
While Wilco was recording tracks, Jay Farrar formed a band of his own,
Son Volt.
[The band was briefly known as Grain before ''Trace'' was completed.] Son Volt signed to
Warner Bros. Records and began recording their first album (also produced by Paulson), ''
Trace'', in November 1994. The fact that both Wilco and Son Volt began working on album almost immediately after the Uncle Tupelo breakup caused debate among critics, fans, and Warner Brothers about which would be the better band.
[Kot 2004. p. 90] Joe McEwen, who originally signed Uncle Tupelo to a Warner subsidiary, felt that Wilco was taking a step backwards from the material on ''Anodyne''. McEwen urged Richard Dodd, who had recently mixed
Tom Petty's ''
Wildflowers'', to remix the album. Dodd emphasized Tweedy's vocals to increase the chances of success on radio.
[Kot 2004. p. 93]
Wilco began touring before the album was released. Their live debut was on
November 27,
1994 at Cicero's Basement Bar, a venue where Uncle Tupelo had first received significant media attention. The band was billed for that concert as
Black Shampoo, a reference to a 1970s
B-movie, and the show sold out.
Wilco continued to tour for two hundred shows, culminating in show at the
South by Southwest Music Conference in
Austin,
Texas in March 1995.
''A.M.'' was released on Reprise Records on
March 28,
1995.
Commercial and critical reception
''A.M.'' received modest reviews from critics. Holly George-Warren of ''
Rolling Stone'' called the album "one hell of a country-guts debut", praising the influence of
Gram Parsons and
Neil Young on the music. However, the album sill received a moderate three-and-a-half star rating.
[Last accessed July 8, 2007.] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of
All Music Guide enjoyed "I Must Be High", noting that Wilco can "subvert the
country genre without losing its accessibility", but felt that the following songs were disappointing.
[Last accessed July 8, 2007.] However, fellow All Music Guide critic Matthew Greenwald found the album to be "brilliant and underrated."
[Last accessed July 17, 2007.] Robert Christgau of ''
The Village Voice'' gave the album a three-star honorable mention, but called it "realist defiance grinding sadly down into realist bathos."
[Last accessed July 8, 2007.] ''
The Village Voice'' placed the album at position thirty-four on the 1995
Pazz & Jop critics poll.
[Last accessed July 9, 2007.] The band was disappointed by the critical reception, since ''Trace'' was met with better reviews.
[Kot 2004. p. 97] According to Henneman:
''A.M.'' only hit number twenty-seven on ''
Billboard'''s
Heatseekers chart, whereas ''Trace'' peaked at number 116 on the
''Billboard'' 200; by 1997, ''Trace'' had outsold ''A.M.'' two-to-one.
Wilco released "Box Full of Letters" as a
single, but it received little airplay. For the only time in Wilco's career, ticket sales failed to meet expectations.
As of 2003, the album had sold about 150,000 copies.
[Kot 2004. p. 125]