''The Winding Sheet'' is the debut studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

artist

Mark Lanegan Mark William Lanegan (November 25, 1964 – February 22, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, and poet. First becoming prominent as the lead singer for the early grunge band Screaming Trees, he was also known as a member of Queens of the St ...

. It was released on May 1, 1990 on

Sub Pop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...

. The album was Lanegan's first solo work, and is notable in its departure from the characteristic sound of

Screaming Trees Screaming Trees was an American rock band formed in Ellensburg, Washington, in 1984 by vocalist Mark Lanegan, guitarist Gary Lee Conner, bass player Van Conner, and drummer Mark Pickerel. Pickerel had been replaced by Barrett Martin by the tim ...

, the band he fronted from 1985 until 2000.

Background

While the work done in the Screaming Trees was much more energetic and fit into the burgeoning grunge genre of the late 80s/early 90s, ''The Winding Sheet'' has a much more stripped down sound, defining Lanegan's solo work largely for the rest of the decade. As Lanegan recounts in his 2017 book ''I Am the Wolf: Lyric and Writings'', "Prior to this I had sometimes written words with the other members of my first band, or, more often, had tried to change their lyrics to fit me in a more personal way. This was a tedious, frustrating routine that was never enjoyable, and so ''The Winding Sheet'' became my first attempt at going it alone." Notable music photographer Charles Peterson shot the cover image of Lanegan. During the selection of the album's cover art, Lanegan specifically demanded that a different photo of himself be used on the cover, stating that the label's preferred shot seemed "pretentious". When the album shipped without the cover art being changed per the agreement between him and Sub Pop co-owner

Bruce Pavitt Bruce S. Pavitt (born March 7, 1959) is the Chicago-born co-founder of independent record label Sub Pop. He attended Evergreen State College where he hosted a show on Evergreen's KAOS radio station before founding Sub Pop. History After briefly ...

, Lanegan stormed into Pavitt's office at Sub Pop, berating him and threatening him with legal action and various acts of violence, and threatened to have the albums pulled from store shelves.

Recording

The album was produced by Mike Johnson, who also co-wrote many of the songs, and Jack Endino. In ''I Am the Wolf: Lyrics and Writings'', Lanegan recalls Endino "constantly assuring me that what we were doing was not terrible" and notes that the songs were "born of sadness and uncertainty with my circumstances at the time: relationships, money problems, alcohol, depression, addiction, and so on." Highlights include "Mockingbirds," "Ugly Sunday" and the haunting "Wild Flowers." On "Down in the Dark" good friend

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American musician who served as the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona ...

sings while on the folk classic "

Where Did You Sleep Last Night "In the Pines", also known as "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", "My Girl" and "Black Girl", is a traditional American folk song originating from two songs, "In the Pines" and "The Longest Train", both of whose authorship is unknown and date back ...

" Cobain contributes guitar and

Krist Novoselic Krist Anthony Novoselic (; ; born May 16, 1965) is an American musician and activist. He was the bassist and co-founder of the rock band Nirvana. Novoselic and Kurt Cobain formed the band Nirvana in 1987 along with drummer Aaron Burckhard, wh ...

plays bass.

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

would later also cover "

" on their ''Unplugged'' album.

Foo Fighters Foo Fighters are an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Foo Fighters was initially formed as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Following the success of the eponymous debut album, Grohl (lead vocals, guitar) re ...

' frontman and former

drummer

Dave Grohl David Eric Grohl (born January 14, 1969) is an American musician. He is the founder of the rock band Foo Fighters, in which he is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter. Prior to forming Foo Fighters, he was the drummer of gru ...

has called ''The Winding Sheet'' "one of the best albums of all time" and has said that it was a huge influence on Nirvana's 1993

MTV Unplugged ''MTV Unplugged'' is an American television series on MTV showcasing musical artists usually playing acoustic instruments. The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999 and less frequently from 2000 to 2009, when it was usually billed as ''MTV Un ...

concert.Foo Fighters, On an Honor Roll: Rolling Stone’s 2005 Feature
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Track listing

Personnel

* Mark Lanegan - lead vocals, acoustic guitar (6, 9, 13) *

- electric guitar (11), backing vocals (5) *

- bass (11) *

Jack Endino Jack Endino (born Michael M. Giacondino; 1964) is an American producer and musician based in Seattle, Washington. Long associated with Seattle label Sub Pop and the grunge movement, Endino worked on seminal albums from bands including Mudhon ...

- bass (1, 3 - 5, 10), second electric guitar (5) * Mike Johnson - acoustic guitar (1 - 4, 7 - 8, 10), electric guitar (1, 3 - 5, 8, 10) *

Mark Pickerel Mark Pickerel is an American musician best known as the original drummer for the alternative rock band Screaming Trees. He is also an active session musician and has released several solo albums as a singer/guitarist. Biography Originally fro ...

- drums (1, 3 - 5, 11) *

Steve Fisk Steve Fisk is an American, Washington-based audio engineer, record producer and musician. As a musician, he has been in bands such as the instrumental alternative/indie rock band Pell Mell and the electronic band Pigeonhed. He has long been as ...

- organ (8, 12), piano (1, 4) * Justin Williams - violin (3, 7)

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Winding Sheet 1990 debut albums Mark Lanegan albums Sub Pop albums Albums produced by Jack Endino