The Autumn Defense

By day John Stirratt and Patrick Sansone make albums and tour the world as members of Wilco, while lending their writing, playing and producing abilities to dozens of high-profile recordings. By night they can sit down, relax and create something special that comes straight from the heart of their mutual pursuit of music as a career – the Autumn Defense. After releasing 2007′s self-titled The Autumn Defense on their own Broadmoor label, Stirratt and Sansone teamed up with North Carolina’s Yep Roc Records to release their latest full-length effort, Once Around. For the past nine years, this pair of Southerners-turned-Chicagoans quietly nurtured the reverent, classic pop of the Autumn Defense. From 2000′s debut effort The Green Hour to the critically lauded, salt-of-the-earth folk rock of 2003′s Circles, the Autumn Defense developed its late afternoon sound with the help of a recording and touring band that includes longtime drummer Greg Wiecorek, James Haggerty on bass, and John Pirruccello on guitars.