Any Muzzle of Bees readers in the Champaign/Urban area this weekend should attend the Jay Bennett Memorial Concert at the Cowboy Monkey in Champaign, IL. As tragic as Bennett’s early departure is, his legacy through Wilco and his own (and under-appreciated) solo work lives on.

On Saturday, September 5th (6pm) Edward Burch, David Vandervelde, Titanic Love Affair, Steve Pride & His Blood Kin, Chris DeMay and more gather to pay musical respects to their friend, mentor, and fellow musician.

To shine a local (Milwaukee) light on the occasion I spoke with Chris DeMay who is performing at this weekend’s tribute and recently fronted a Milwaukee all-star band opening for Roadside Graves. It was honestly something to be seen and heard. I asked DeMay to share with me his connection to Jay Bennet and how they got to know each other. Here goes:

“i met jay about 2001 right around the time of his exit from wilco. my band, west of rome, did some shows with jay and edward before and after the release of “the palace at 4 am.” leading up to west of rome working with him to record “drunk tank decoy.” that song was recorded one night in the studio when jay and i were working on overdubs for drunk tank decoy. i had a new song i wanted to demo and jay was like, “let’s do it now.” he encouraged me to record a solo record without my band, a “nebraska” type effort. we always spoke in musical references.”

Below, download two tracks. Frst, “Cowboys and Indians” was “recorded by Jay in ’04–you can hear his voice on the beginning of the track” and the second, “You Shared You” was recorded for the “Dill Scallion” soundtrack that was “learned and recorded this song in about 20 minutes.” Enjoy!

MP3: Chris DeMay – “Cowboys and Indians”
MP3: West of Rome (with Jay Bennett & Edward Burch) – “You Shared You”