{"id":174669,"date":"2026-10-22T14:49:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T18:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=174669"},"modified":"2026-10-22T15:48:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T19:48:36","slug":"bates-plays-wilco-the-beloved-tradition-returns-with-a-new-group-as-its-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2026\/10\/22\/bates-plays-wilco-the-beloved-tradition-returns-with-a-new-group-as-its-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates plays Wilco: The beloved tradition returns with a new group as its focus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Saturday, Oct. 10 was like any other fall day atop Mount David, a 381 ft. tall summit on the edge of the Bates College campus. The sky was bright and blue, the trees surrounding the mountain top were decked out in red and orange leaves, and the air was crisp. Around four in the afternoon, this scene started to shift. Students began to appear on the peak holding instruments and audio equipment. Carpets laid on the rocky ground served as a stage. The sounds of musicians tuning their guitars and testing microphones accompanied the quiet rustle of the leaves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as the sun began to fall behind the stage, Aidan Buck \u201929 from Arlington, Mass., took a microphone and announced to the crowd, \u201cWelcome to Bates Plays Wilco!\u201d Attendees cheered from their seats on the ground, excited for the show to begin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"People
The crowd atop Mount David at Bates Plays Wilco. (Rhea Millward \u201930 for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the past two years the Bates Musicians\u2019 Union (BMU) has put on a collaborative tribute concert on top of Mount David. In 2024 and 2025, Bates musicians covered music from the beloved indie folk band Big Thief from Brooklyn, N.Y. This year, the BMU co-presidents Mazie Chamberlin \u201927 of New York City and Eno Little \u201927 of Santa Fe, N.M., decided to switch it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were trying to find something that had a similar accessibility and popularity with the college, but that was also a little different. Last year was such a big year for Big Thief<\/a>, and we wanted to close the door on that and do something new,\u201d Chamberlin said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two
From left, Carly Buck \u201927 and Aidan Buck \u201929 of Arlington, Mass. (Carly Philpott \u201927 for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The goal of this concert has always been to cultivate a space where Bates students, whether they identify as musicians or not, can get together and make music. On a spreadsheet sent out by the BMU, students got to sign up for any musical part in a song. There were plenty of songs to choose from. Wilco has recorded 13 studio albums, five EPs, and other notable collaborations and live albums over their 31 years as a band. Some songs were played by people who have been making music together for years, and some were played by strangers meeting \u2014 and performing together \u2014 for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the songs Aidan Buck performed was a duet with his sister Carly Buck \u2014 a senior at Bates. They sang \u201cYou and I\u201d from Wilco\u2019s 2009 self-titled album, and Aidan played guitar. \u201cWe knew it would be wholesome,\u201d Aidan joked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Three
From left, Camm Fyfe \u201930 of Raleigh, N.C., Maria Tilley \u201930 of Gilford, N.H., and Beck Welling \u201930 New Gloucester, Maine,\u00a0 play \u201cNo Sense in Lovin\u201d by Uncle Tupelo. (Carly Philpott \u201927 for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beck Welling \u201930 of New Gloucester, Maine, played fiddle on \u201cNo Sense in Lovin\u201d by Uncle Tupelo, the band that became Wilco after Jay Farrar left to form Son Volt. Welling played with three other first-year students whom he met through the BMU. Welling noted that there is already a great community of first-year musicians and the event on Mt. David was a great kick off. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to just play music sometimes and not have to put on a huge production,\u201d Welling said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the crowd, there were a wide range of people: current students, alumni, parents, visiting friends, and Lewiston locals who were drawn to the top of the \u201cmountain.\u201d Chamberlin explained that this was one of her favorite parts of the event. She said, \u201cI hope Bates Plays continue so happen and future generations of the BMU continue to think about how to make it bigger and more inclusive. I feel like there\u2019s a lot of potential there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"In
The crowd dances to \u201cHeavy Metal Drummer\u201d played by, from left, Eno Little \u201927, Jeb Martin \u201927, Will Cohen \u201928, and Gabe Gracies \u201929. (Rhea Millward \u201930 for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The event concluded with a big dance party to \u201cHeavy Metal Drummer\u201d from Wilco\u2019s album, Yankee Hotel Foxtro<\/em>t, and a singalong to the beloved \u201cCalifornia Stars\u201d from the Billy Bragg and Wilco album Mermaid Avenue.<\/em> \u201cIt was a blast,\u201d Welling said about playing fiddle for the finale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the darkness, musicians and concert-goers helped bring the equipment down the mountain. After everybody left, Mt. David returned to its original state \u2014 quiet, empty, and serene. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bates Plays, an annual outdoor musical performance organized by the Bates Musicians’ Union, made its return to the top of Mount David with an evening of student musicians playing the music of Wilco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1965,"featured_media":174671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"bates_author_byline_override":"Charlotte Comrack \u201927","_estimated-read-time":"","_post-template":"\/usr\/local\/webserver\/webpve\/htdocs\/new-www.bates.edu\/wp-content\/themes\/b\/news\/single-big-header-image.php","_header-color":"","_photo-credit":"Rhea Millward","_header-effect":"parallax","override_related_with_tag":"","_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-batesnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1965"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174669"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174682,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174669\/revisions\/174682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}