Editing Billy Bragg (section)

===Late 1990s and 2000s===
Bragg released the album ''[[William Bloke]]'' in 1996 after taking time off to help new partner Juliet Wills raise their son Jack. (There is a reference to him in the track "Brickbat": "Now you'll find me with the baby, in the bathroom".)<ref>{{cite web|title=Brickbat|url=http://www.billybragg.co.uk/music/album.php?albumID=14&songID=59|access-date=6 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129020854/http://www.billybragg.co.uk/music/album.php?albumID=14&songID=59|archive-date=29 November 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> After the ambitious instrumentation of ''[[Don't Try This at Home (Billy Bragg album)|Don't Try This at Home]]'', it was a simpler record, musically, more personal and even spiritual, lyrically (its title a pun on the name of 18th-century English poet [[William Blake]], who is referenced in the song "Upfield").{{sfn|Collins|2018|pp=248–250}}

Around that time, [[Nora Guthrie]] (daughter of American folk artist [[Woody Guthrie]]) asked Bragg to set some of her father's unrecorded lyrics to music. The result was a collaboration with the band [[Wilco]] and [[Natalie Merchant]] (with whom Bragg had worked previously). They released the album ''[[Mermaid Avenue]]'' in 1998,<ref>{{cite web|title=Mermaid Avenue|url=http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/mermaid-avenue|work=Nonesuch catalogue|access-date=10 June 2014}}</ref> and ''[[Mermaid Avenue Vol. II]]'' in 2000.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mermaid Avenue Vol II|url=http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/mermaid-avenue-vol-ii|work=Nonesuch catalogue|access-date=10 June 2014}}</ref> The first album was nominated for a [[Grammy Award]] in the Best Contemporary Folk Album category. A third batch, ''Mermaid Avenue Vol III'', and ''The Complete Sessions'' followed in 2012 to mark Woody Guthrie's centennial.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions|url=http://www.billybragg.co.uk/store/index.php/music/mermaid-avenue-the-complete-sessions.html|work=Bragg's Emporium|access-date=10 June 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140621171719/http://www.billybragg.co.uk/store/index.php/music/mermaid-avenue-the-complete-sessions.html|archive-date=21 June 2014}}</ref> A rift with Wilco over mixing and sequencing the first album led to Bragg recruiting his own band, The Blokes, to promote the album live. The Blokes included keyboardist [[Ian McLagan]], who had been a member of Bragg's boyhood heroes [[the Faces]]. The documentary film ''[[Man in the Sand]]'' depicted the roles of Nora Guthrie, Bragg, and Wilco in the creation of the ''Mermaid Avenue'' albums.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/237191/Billy-Bragg-and-Wilco-Man-in-the-Sand/overview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080621161648/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/237191/Billy-Bragg-and-Wilco-Man-in-the-Sand/overview |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 June 2008 |title=Billy Bragg and Wilco: Man in the Sand (1999) |author=|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=2008    <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |access-date=5 October 2013}}</ref>

A developing interest in [[English nationalism|English national identity]], driven by the rise of the [[British National Party|BNP]] and his own move from London to rural [[Dorset]] in 1999, informed his 2002 album ''[[England, Half-English]]'' (whose single, "Take Down The Union Jack" put him back on ''[[Top of the Pops]]'' in the Queen's Golden Jubilee year<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3171574.stm|title=Bragg's 20 years on campaign trail|date=7 October 2003 |publisher=BBC Entertainment |access-date=10 June 2014}}</ref>) and his 2006 book ''The Progressive Patriot''. The book expressed his view that English socialists can reclaim patriotism from the right wing. He draws on Victorian poet [[Rudyard Kipling]] for an inclusive sense of Englishness.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xppmt Rhyme and Reason], [[BBC Radio 4]], 25 January 2011.</ref> In 2007 Bragg moved closer to his English folk music roots by joining the [[World of Music, Arts and Dance|WOMAD]]-inspired collective [[The Imagined Village]], who recorded an album of updated versions of traditional English songs and dances and toured through that autumn.<ref name="The Imagined Village">{{cite web|url = http://www.imaginedvillage.com/|title = The Imagined Village Official Website|access-date = 18 November 2014|archive-date = 23 November 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141123081142/http://imaginedvillage.com/|url-status = dead}}</ref>

In December, Bragg previewed tracks from his forthcoming album ''[[Mr. Love & Justice]]'' at a one-off evening of music and conversation to mark his 50th birthday at London's [[South Bank]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wherediditallgorightblog.wordpress.com/2007/12/10/a-big-boy-now/|title=A big boy now |date=10 December 2007 |publisher= Never Knowingly Underwhelmed|access-date= 10 June 2014}}</ref> The album was released in March 2008, the second Bragg album to be named after a book by [[Colin MacInnes]] after ''England, Half-English''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/colin-macinnes/|title=Colin MacInnes|publisher=Fantastic Fiction|date=18 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.faber.co.uk/9780571252848-england-half-english.html|title=England Half English|publisher=Faber|date=18 November 2014}}</ref> The same year, during the [[NME Awards]] ceremony, Bragg sang a duet with British solo act [[Kate Nash]]. They mixed up two of their greatest hits, Nash playing "[[Foundations (song)|Foundations]]", and Bragg redoing "A New England".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2-5gv81cC0| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211113/a2-5gv81cC0| archive-date=2021-11-13 | url-status=live|title=Kate Nash And Billy Bragg – A New England/Foundations – NME| date=12 May 2008|publisher=YouTube |access-date=10 June 2014}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Also in 2008, Bragg played a small role in Stuart Bamforth's film ''A13: Road Movie''.<ref name="A13 Road Movie">{{cite web |url= http://www.dekkoproductions.co.uk/dekkofilms.htm|title= Dekko Productions|access-date= 10 June 2014}}</ref>

In 2009, Bragg was invited by London's [[South Bank]] to write new lyrics for "[[Ode to Joy]]", the final movement of [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ninth Symphony]] (original libretto by [[Friedrich Schiller]]), since adopted as an international anthem of unity. The London Philharmonic Orchestra performed it at the Royal Festival Hall in front of [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]], whom Bragg met afterwards to earn "brownie points" with his mother, who was also in attendance.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/billy-braggs-new-odes-to-_b_1321000.html|first=Greg|last=Mitchell|date=3 May 2012|title=Billy Bragg's New Odes to Woody Guthrie—and Beethoven|work=The Huffington Post|access-date= 9 September 2014}}</ref>