The Autumn Defense

Rock group

The Autumn Defense are a pleasant reminder of a past time, when music was gentler, harmonies were smooth, and an acoustic guitar was all you needed to make timeless soft rock songs. As a duo, Autumn Defense consists of multi-instrumentalists John Stirratt and Pat Sansone, two members of Chicago's iconic alt-country band Wilco. Sansone joined Wilco three years after he and Stirratt formed Autumn Defense shortly before 2001. The duo's music reflects 1960s sunshine California pop and 1970s soft rock and folk, and is reminiscent of bands such as Bread, America, and the subtler side of the Beach Boys. With three albums under their belt, Autumn Defense has created a catalog that makes for easy listening and lazy mornings. Their music is sung, orchestrated, and arranged so precisely that it seems effortless. "In short: warming, gorgeous, delightful," wrote David Fricke in Rolling Stone, of the duo's second album, Circles. While Autumn Defense often takes a backseat to Wilco, the pair are notably talented and engaging singers, songwriters, and arrangers.

Bassist Stirratt planted a respected footprint in the mud of contemporary country-rock when he joined Uncle Tupelo (formed by Jay Farrar and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy) in the early 1990s. In 1994, after Tweedy and Stirratt left Uncle Tupelo, the two formed Wilco, which has become the most recognized modern day alt-country band to date. While still playing in Uncle Tupelo, Stirratt met the multi-instrumental session extraordinaire named Pat Sansone in New Orleans. Stirratt and Sansone immediately clicked when they started talking about music. "He was a '60s pop fiend and definitely had an appreciation for stuff that I liked a lot," Stirratt remarked to Serene Dominic in Detroit's Metro Times. "We both loved Forever Changes, that Love record, and we'd get together and play most of the songs from it."

Stirratt began working on songs together with Sansone when he had breaks from Wilco. Sansone was a talented and evocative arranger who could turn Stirratt's songs into the masterpieces he heard in his own head. The Autumn Defense was born between Wilco records and Wilco tours. In 2000 Stirratt's record label, Broadmoor Records, released the Autumn Defense album The Green Hour. While the album was more of a Stirratt side project than a partnership between him and Sansone, the groundwork for the Autumn Defense was laid down via The Green Hour. The lovely vocals and vintage chamber pop written by Stirratt became a lush folk-pop masterpiece with the help of Sansone's arrangements and the various harmonies and instruments he played.

In the winter of 2002, Autumn Defense began work on their sophomore album at a Nashville recording studio. Sansone now had a bigger hand in both writing and singing. The band made parts of the record when they could, in between Stirratt's commitments to Wilco. During this time, Wilco's acclaimed documentary film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart was being made, as well as the championed Wilco record Yankee Foxtrot Hotel, which was released in the spring of 2002. The film was released in April of 2003, and Autumn Defense's second record, Circles, came out in October. Released on the well-respected indie label Arena Rock, Circles was a bit overshadowed by all the press and attention Wilco obtained from their film and record.

Critics most often compared the Autumn Defense's laid-back sound to the likes of 1960s and 1970s artists, similar to that of artists such as Donovan, Bread, and the Bee Gees, whose music was highly influential to an entire genre of music. Like the previously mentioned bands, Autumn Defense worked with an acoustic soft rock glee, with slightly psychedelic and sunny pop, layered, sentimental, and unashamed. "I don't think we get tired of it. That music has been a big influence for us," Stirratt told Steve Gillespie of the Meridian Star. "When it does come to making our own music we can't help but be influenced." To support their album, the band performed shows both as a duo and with a backing band. With a full band, the pair were able to capture all the moody and swelling orchestral pop that the band played so well on the album itself. When Stirratt and Sansone toured as a duo, they used just two acoustic guitars and a microphone. By 2004, with Wilco's endless touring schedule, Sansone was brought on as a full-fledged touring member of Wilco, playing guitar, keyboards, and percussion, as well as providing harmonies.

Working and playing together in Wilco, Stirratt and Sansone were actually able to write songs as the Autumn Defense in their most cohesive way. Although Wilco has taken up much of their time, Autumn Defense has remained a side project of Wilco that quietly marches on. "Now, the majority of [Autumn Defense's] material begins with one of us bringing in an idea and then the other one rounding it out," Sansone told Mike Greenhaus in Relix. "Occasionally there are times when we sit around with a guitar and come up with songs together. But we have known each other for so long that there is a certain amount of E.S.P. in the writing anyway. Playing together in Wilco has only increased that chemistry."

In 2007, four years after their sophomore record, Autumn Defense released their beautiful and poetic self-titled album on Broadmoor. "Throughout, Stirratt and Sansone harmonize sweetly but subtly, as if they were brothers separated early in life and only recently reconnected," wrote Fred Mills in a Magnet review of the new record. With its intricate arrangements and subtle nuances, the Sansone-produced album was worth the wait. "The duo's third, eponymous LP is a vision of falling leaves and sun rays, decked out in woodwinds, percussion and, falsetto," wrote Darcie Stevens in the Austin Chronicle. Never so much as with this album did the band named Autumn Defense feel and sound so appropriate.

For the Record …

Members include Pat Sansone , guitar, vocals, keyboards; John Stirratt , guitar, vocals, bass.

Group formed in Chicago, IL, c. 2001; released debut album The Green Hour, Broadmoor, 2000; released Circles, Arena Rock Recording Co., 2003; released The Autumn Defense, Broadmoor, 2007.

Addresses: Record company—Broadmoor Records, P.O. Box 121, Taylor, MS 38673. Web site—Autumn Defense Official Web site: http://www.theautumndefense.com.

Selected discography

The Green Hour, Broadmoor Records, 2000.

Circles, Arena Rock Recording Company, 2003.

The Autumn Defense, Broadmoor Records, 2007.

Sources

Periodicals

Austin Chronicle, February 16, 2007.

Magnet, January/February, 2007.

Meridian Star (Meridian, MS), May 5, 2008.

Metro Times (Detroit, MI), February 4, 2004.

Rolling Stone, March 4, 2004.

Online

Autumn Defense Official Web site, http://www.theautumndefense.com (June 10, 2008).

"The Autumn Defense," Relix,http://www.relix.com/Features/Interviews/The_Autumn_Defense_200703092175.html (June 10, 2008).

—Shannon McCarthy