As I expected it would be, Jeff Tweedy's solo show at the Olympia Theatre (in Montreal) was brilliant, full to the brim of music, poetry, humour and (an under-appreciated aspect of Tweedy's art) innovative guitar-playing. Some personal highlights: "Theologians" during the first encore; "One Wing", which might be my favourite Wilco song; "Kamera", a standout on an album filled with them, their 2002 masterpiece, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I can't remember if it was said before or after his playing "Country Disappeared", but he mentioned that a video of the song had been shot in the same theatre during Wilco's last Montreal visit, in February of 2010, so I looked it up and enjoyed it very much - so here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkK4fjUlmVs. Go see this group, or Tweedy solo, if you possibly can, and listen to their records, too. They are a band that can hold the field with any other that could be named. Don't miss out.

Another artist that straddles the line between music and poetry is Wilco's Jeff Tweedy. He is probably the most important American songwriter of the last decade or so, because along with his brilliant band, he has explored the boundaries of both words and music in terms of creating imagery, telling stories, putting arguments forward, exploring emotion, etc. - in other words, all the things that are accomplished by poetry of the highest level. Here is an excerpt from "One Wing", from their most recent recording, Wilco (2009):

We may as well be made of stone
We can't be flown
One wing will never fly
Neither yours nor mine
I fear we can only wave goodbye

See what I mean? If you're interested in Wilco, and I think you should be, I would recommend the DVD concert documentary, Wilco Live: Ashes of American Flags (2009) where Tweedy discusses his impressionistic songwriting. I would also suggest listening to all of their albums in order from first to last to hear their astonishing growth (and some of the greatest rock music of this generation).