A great album from a band in their prime, Sky Blue Sky is as eloquently straightforward as Wilco's previous studio recording, the Grammy-winning A Ghost Is Born, was daringly experimental. Tweedy's lyrics deal forthrightly with romantic separation and reconciliation, their bittersweet quality giving way, as the album progresses, to a more uplifting, redemptive mood. Tweedy quite literally banishes the darkness on the penultimate track, the inspiring, gospel-tinged “What Light,” the album's first single, and concludes with a deeply affecting, 'til-death-do-us-part lullaby, “On and On and On.” There are hints of early-seventies Southern California folk-rock sweetness in the harmonies throughout the band-produced Sky Blue Sky, a bluesy Allman Brothers feel to the guitar /keyboard interplay, and plenty of brash guitar solos that take songs like “You Are My Face” and “Shake It Off” in thrilling, unexpected directions. Tweedy cut these tracks in the band's Chicago studio with members John Stirratt (bass, vocals), Glenn Kotche (drums), Mike Jorgensen (keyboards), Nels Cline (guitars) and Pat Sansone (guitars, keyboards, vocals); A Ghost Is Born co-producer Jim O'Rourke returns as music contributor. Released 05/15/2007 by Nonesuch Records, the album is available here as a double LP pressed on 180 gram, half-speed mastered vinyl (by Stan Richter; plating at R.T.I.) and includes a bonus CD copy of the album.