After the overwhelming response to their just-wrapped North American tour in tribute of R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction, Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy are planning to reprise the festivities next year in honor of the 40th anniversary of Michael Stipe and company’s Life’s Rich Pageant.
“We want to do it, but there’s so many logistics still to be worked out, like who’s available when and what cities we would go to,” Narducy tells SPIN. “We’re learning as we go. Four shows in a row was pushing it at the end (laughs), especially for how long we play, but we just need to have a little pow-wow and talk about what’s comfortable for everybody. I love that record and I love these tours, so we’re going to do everything we can to make it happen.”
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“I don’t aspire to be in a cover band, but this is just so damn fun,” he continues. “It also doesn’t feel like a cover band. It’s more like a celebration band. Most of the comments from people are them sensing that we love the songs and they love the songs and we’re just going to get into a room and do that for two-plus hours. What does that say about R.E.M.? They’re so phenomenal. The quality of every single album is astounding.”
First, Shannon, Narducy, drummer Jon Wurster, guitarist Dag Juhlin and keyboardist Vijay Tellis-Nayak will extend the Fables fun with a six-show run in the U.K. and Ireland in August, during which Ted Leo will take over on bass for Wilco’s John Stirratt.
“The Dublin show sold so well that we got moved to a bigger room,” Narducy says proudly. “John wasn’t available during that time due to Wilco commitments, and Ted had been texting me throughout the whole thing about he much he loves Fables, so we already had a dialog. When I asked him if he’d be interested, he jumped at it, although we’ll only have time to rehearse once in London before the tour.”
At the recent shows, which featured numerous surprise appearances by the actual members of R.E.M., the presence of Stirratt was almost an embarrassment of riches, in that he didn’t often contribute the backing vocals that are a key element of Wilco’s sound. “That says so much about [R.E.M. vocalist/bassist] Mike Mills, because I can play most of what Mike Mills does. I cannot play most of what Mike Mills does and sing Mike Mills’ parts,” Narducy says. “It’s literally me delegating those really amazing bass parts to an amazing bass player while I worry about the vocals. It’s also kind of a presentation thing too, because Michael and I have been doing this for so long as a team with a band behind us that I wanted to present the show that way — with me singing.”
Narducy is also still marveling at the vocal performance of Shannon, who spent three days before the tour preparing with the help of the same vocal coach with whom he worked in his role as George Jones in the miniseries George and Tammy.
“He really worked hard on his vocals for this tour and I think it really showed,” he says. “I thought he sounded good on the [2024] Murmur tour but almost everybody I spoke to was like, something happened in the last year. Backstage, Michael is not talking to anybody. He’s doing yoga stretches. He’s listening to music. He’s warming up his voice. That’s quite a precedent when the person at the top is working that hard and is that committed. He really set such a great tone for the rest of us.”
For now, Narducy is shifting into work with the Bob Mould Band, which tapes an appearance Thursday (March 20) on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in support of Mould’s new album, Here We Go Crazy. His childhood Chicago punk band, Verboten, is also opening for Iggy Pop at Chicago’s Salt Shed on March 24.
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