SF Weekly

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.sfweekly.com/Issues/2005-11-09/music/music.html

From sfweekly.com
Originally published by SF Weekly 2005-11-09
©2005 New Times, Inc. All rights reserved.

A to Z
My Morning Jacket's stunning new album marks a step forward for the atmospheric country band
By Mosi Reeves

Neal Preston
 
 
My Morning Jacket's sound is expansive. It's strong enough to carry through an arena or an acres-wide campground, yet intimate enough to waft softly through your headphones.
The Louisville, Ky., quintet -- currently touring in support of its new release, Z -- is led by Jim "Jim James" Olliges, Jr., a bearded man who likes to layer his clear, twanged voice with heavy reverb, so that it echoes through his band's cacophony. He imbues these musicians' familiar, expertly rendered alt-country with a profound sense of melancholy, presenting the urban cowboy as dislocated troubadour. His calling card, "The Way That He Sings" from 2001's At Dawn, is something of a mission statement: "Why does my mind blow to bits every time they play that song?/ It's just the way that he sings/ Not the words that he says, or the band."

James' and his group's attempts at blowing minds have attracted many a fan these past few years, including Cameron Crowe, who cast the band in his Elizabethtown (continuing a tradition that began with Pearl Jam's appearance in the director's Seattle snapshot Singles), and the silver bullet of beers, Coors, which used "Mahgeetah" in a commercial. Critics sometimes point to MMJ's liberal borrowing from the past, particularly in James' warbling, which echoes that of the plaintive, flat-sounding Neil Young. Whether or not such judgments hold water, the band is just plain sick of them.

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