Press: Salt Lake Tribune

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http://www.sltrib.com/2004/May/05142004/friday/166321.asp

FRIDAY May 14, 2004
My Morning Jacket wears well, but not in the woods

After My Morning Jacket finishes its spring tour, band members will return for a rare performance in their hometown of Louisville, Ky., playing the opening night party of the third annual "The Big Lewbowski" festival.  
By Dan Nailen
The Salt Lake Tribune

    In the late '80s, a clever publicist at Sub Pop Records convinced the European rock media that the label's bands -- Nirvana, Tad and Mudhoney among them -- were a crew of scraggly-haired lumberjack types who magically appeared from the Northwest woods with a bunch of killer songs.
    The angle worked, and the European media gushed over the sound of "Sasquatch Rock" from America, allowing the bands to tour Europe before most of America had ever heard of them.
    Somebody in the My Morning Jacket camp was doing his homework, because the Louisville, Ky.-based quintet has nearly copied that route to the mainstream, partly a result of tales of the group recording in a converted silo on singer Jim James' farm. The musicians' bushy beards helped with the bucolic image, and European audiences warmed to the band before U.S. audiences were exposed, due to stints opening for Foo Fighters and the band signing with Dave Matthews' label, ATO Records.
    The thing is, that backwoods image is overblown.
    "Totally," agreed drummer Patrick Hallahan, a childhood friend of James who joined the band after its second album, "At Dawn," was released, and after he finished his coursework in psychology and photography at the University of Louisville.
    "We're hardly 'backwoods.' But we have long hair and we're from Kentucky, so we were screwed from the beginning. It just seems like something the press likes to latch onto."
    Fortunately, My Morning Jacket offers a lot more to latch onto than an image. James' high-lonesome tenor -- inevitably compared to Neil Young's voice, but better -- songs are expansive in sound and scope, and an energetic live show belies the languid pacing of the group's recorded work.
    The band's latest album, "It Still Moves," is a perfect starting point for newcomers to My Morning Jacket, with 12 songs sprawling across more than 70 minutes full of majestic harmonies, traditional Southern guitar riffs and soul flourishes like the horns accenting the song "Dancefloors." And while the expansive work generally sticks to mid-tempo or slower, when the songs are performed live, they take on new life. The band's show at the Zephyr Club last fall was not just a great My Morning Jacket show; it was arguably the year's best club show.
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    Since that October gig, the band has undergone considerable changes, the most obvious being the departure of longtime guitarist Johnny Quaid, who is also James' cousin, and keyboardist Danny Cash, both of whom got burned out by My Morning Jacket's relentless touring schedule. They quit in January, but the band managed to find replacements in short order in guitarist Carl Broemel and keyboardist Bo Koster.
    "We auditioned 10 people, and they were the first two guys we played with," Hallahan said. "It was just a seamless transition. They rehearsed with us for four days and we went out on tour."
    "It definitely had the potential to be weird, but it was just seamless. It was scary how easy it was. . . . Nothing against those other guys [Quaid and Cash], but towards the end they weren't happy. They hated being on tour. So now it feels really good."
    After My Morning Jacket rumbles through its spring tour, the band will do what Hallahan calls a rare hometown show, playing the opening night party of the third annual "The Big Lewbowski" festival in Louisville. The band has never been to one of the gatherings -- a celebration of the Coen brothers' movie involving much bowling and many White Russian cocktails -- but the DVD is part of the band's collection on the tour bus.
    Asked what, exactly, brings the city of Louisville, My Morning Jacket and a "The Big Lewbowski" festival together, Hallahan has a quick answer: "Genius!"
    As for the rarity of the band's shows in its Kentucky hometown, Hallahan said it was partly due to a lack of venues in the band's early days, and evolved into part of the group's larger plan.
    "From the beginning [when Hallahan was acting as band photographer before joining on drums], we shot outward," Hallahan said. "We didn't want to be just a local band. We wanted to hit the road."
    Like that whole backwoods thing, it's a strategy that works for My Morning Jacket.
    
   Try it on
    
   * My Morning Jacket, with Andrew Bird opening, plays In The Venue, 219 S. 600 West, Salt Lake City, Saturday at 8 p.m.
    
   * Tickets are $15 and available at all Smith's Tix outlets, 24Tix.com and at the door.
    
  
      
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