According to American Songwriter Magazine, "The Mermaid Avenue project is essential for showing that Woody Guthrie could illuminate what was going on inside of him as well as he could detail the plight of his fellow man".

Nora Guthrie contacted Bragg, who in turn approached Wilco and asked them to participate in the project as well.

Rather than recreating tunes in Guthrie's style, Bragg and Wilco created new, contemporary music for the lyrics.

[citation needed] Man in the Sand, a documentary about the collaboration between Billy Bragg and Wilco, was released in 1999.

Dylan writes in his autobiography Chronicles: "Forty years later, these lyrics would fall into the hands of Billy Bragg and the group Wilco and they would put melodies to them, bring them to full life and record them.