My Morning Jacket's Jim James talks surgery, new album

[johnnYYac]

My Morning Jacket's Jim James talks surgery, new album

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/go/my-morning-jacket-s-jim-james-talks-surgery-new-album/article_f8e271bd-8dd0-57b3-b02f-b760355c79ec.html

BY ALAN SCULLEY

The notion that songwriters must suffer for their art has long been one of the popular cliches of music, or for that matter, poetry, painting or any other form of artistic expression.

Jim James, songwriter and singer of My Morning Jacket, suffered while making the band's new album, "The Waterfall." But it wasn't the kind of emotional pain that some would say fuels the best songwriting.

Right after returning for a second session of work on "The Waterfall" at a studio in the picturesque Northern California locale of Stinson Beach, James started suffering from severe back pain. Frequently, the pain got so bad, he was forced to get horizontal as he and the other members of My Morning Jacket worked on songs.

"It was kind of like we went out there (to Stinson Beach) in two chunks, two one-month chunks," James said in an early May phone interview. "So we had already been out there for the first-month chunk, and then when we came back, right when we got there for the second one is when my back went out. And I was kind of bed ridden for two or three days, in agony.

"Then that kind of slowly faded away and we used the rest of our second chunk, but I had to lay down a lot and I wasn't really in a good place. But we made it through that second chunk."

Still in pain, James tried a variety of natural treatments to resolve his back issues, but after seven months, gave in and had surgery to repair a herniated disk.

He has recovered sufficiently for My Morning Jacket to begin a tour that, aside from a couple of short breaks, is booked straight through October.

"It's OK," James said of his back. "It (the surgery) didn't really take care of it, but it hasn't gotten worse."

Even if he isn't quite back to 100 percent fighting shape, James is happy to be back on the road with the Louisville-based band he formed in 1998, with the new album in tow.

"That always makes a new tour exciting because you've got all of these new songs to play," he said. "So that will be one thing. The other thing is, we're bringing back our spontaneous curation series, which is where the fans can email in what songs they want to hear in the set list in their town. That was really fun when we did that last time."

My Morning Jacket last toured in summer 2013 and then went on break. Band members "Two-Tone" Tommy Blankenship (bass), Carl Broemel (guitar), Bo Koster (keyboards) and Patrick Hallahan (drums), for the most part, took things easy.

James didn't. He jumped right off of the My Morning Jacket touring cycle for its sixth album, 2011's "Circuital," and hit the road to promote a solo album, "Regions of Light and Sound of God," he had worked on during earlier breaks in the group's schedule.

Later on, he got involved in "The New Basement Tapes." For this recording project, producer T Bone Burnett brought together James, Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes and Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops to write music to unused lyrics Bob Dylan had written in 1967 while working withThe Band on what eventually became the 1975 album, "The Basement Tapes."

The new songs finished by James and his New Basement Tapes cohorts were released on the CD "Lost On The River."

Then it was on to "The Waterfall."

The sessions for the album were notable for the freewheeling attitude My Morning Jacket took into the project. At the outset, the band members gave themselves total artistic freedom to experiment all they wanted with the songs and spend as much time as needed to finish the album.

"I think this (recording process) opened our eyes to at least taking a little bit more time because once you think it's finished, it's nice to listen to it for awhile and confirm that you really think it's finished," James said.

For the most part, "The Waterfall" is a big-sounding album with songs like "Spring (Among The Living)," "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall") and "Thin Line" that have an epic feel, gracious melodies and arrangements that travel a somewhat wandering - but still focused - path.

Meanwhile, the aching breakup song "Get The Point," the largely gentle and acoustic "Like A River" and a couple of slightly leaner and more concise uptempo tunes, "Big Decisions" and "Compound Fracture," help add energy and contrast to the album. Despite having those worthy songs, the album, James said, didn't feel complete until "Believe" (Nobody Knows)," the last song he wrote for the sessions, was recorded.

"It kind it like just cemented the fact that these 10 songs could go together," James said of "Believe." "Before, when it wasn't there, we would try a different song and it would make the album feel too slow, and we'd try another song, and it would make the album feel too fast."

[Lonndown27]

Wow..very interesting read all around