On May 9th 2003 Chicago Tribune published an interview with Jim James and Johnny Quaid, done by John Cook. The original interview can be found here.
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If you ran into My Morning Jacket in a dark alley, you'd probably turn and run. The Southern rock revivalists from Louisville look like bad guys from some Starsky and Hutch episode set in Appalachia--five road-weary, freak-flag-flying Southerners with ropes of shaggy hair, wild beards, and eyes hidden behind amber aviator sunglasses.
But don't let the image fool you. Though they play heavy metal guitars, make loud, raucous rock noise better than any band since Black Sabbath and obsessively shake their tangled manes on stage, the boys in My Morning Jacket are softies at heart.
Frontman and songwriter Jim James, a 24-year-old Louisville native with a crystal voice that recalls Roy Orbison in its clarity and Neil Young in its nuance, keeps a stuffed animal--a cuddly bison head that James calls "an old friend"--affixed to his mic stand on stage with him. And he is as quick to cite "The Muppet Show" as Led Zeppelin when it comes to his musical influences.
"I grew up listening to the Muppets and Disney [songs]," James says. "That's what really drew me to music."
The Muppets meet Led Zeppelin is as good a way as any to describe My Morning Jacket's sound. Its most recent record, 2001's "At Dawn" (Darla Records), is a loose, sprawling collection of folk-rock songs that hearken back to the glory days of classic rock, overlaid with James' chiming, sing-song melodies (it's hard not to imagine Kermit the Frog singing some of the infectious backing vocals), touches of psychedelia and post-rock indie noise. The whole record is awash in reverb--"I can't sing without reverb," James says, and he means it--which lends it the character of a distant transmission, a dispatch from a different time. If you've ever wondered what the Eagles would have sounded like if they were any good, go buy a copy of "At Dawn."
It's on stage where the Led Zeppelin part comes in. Live, My Morning Jacket takes those laid-back tunes for lazy-afternoon listening and plays them with boundless energy, ferocity, and volume, reclaiming the glory and majesty of the classic rock pantheon for a generation crippled by the insularity and nihilism of indie-rock hipsterism.
James is not much for stage banter, but he, lead guitar player Johnny Quaid, and bass player Thomas "Two Tone Tommy" Blankenship work their guitars like jackhammers, wringing out every note, rocking back and forth and striking rock god poses.
"We kind of look at it as two different worlds," James says by way of explaining the difference between his band's recordings and live shows. "The records are going to last forever, and we try to make them sound like we want them to sound forever. But when we're on the road, we get all antsy and cooped up in the van, and we want to let it out on stage. The road needs the studio, and the studio needs the road."
The road has been winning out lately. My Morning Jacket tours voraciously, including several trips to Belgium and Denmark, where, thanks to a rave review of "At Dawn" by an influential Danish writer, they have a devoted following. "It was amazing," Quaid says of their first tour of Belgium and Denmark, in 2000. "Some promoter called and said, `You're blowing up over here,' and in a couple of weeks we hopped on a plane." They headlined before audiences of 1,000, playing in front of 5,000 people at one music festival. After returning to the states, they'd sometimes play before audiences of 10 people.
Quaid's family owns a farm outside Louisville--"soybeans and a small amount of beef cattle," he says--where he worked before leaving to tour with the band. "The day before we got on that plane," he says, "I worked a full day on that farm." The band has converted an apartment above a three-car garage on that farm into a home studio--called Above the Cadillac--where they recorded "At Dawn" and their forthcoming release, "It Still Moves." The new one is due out on ATO Records, founded by Dave Matthews, who signed My Morning Jacket to a two-record deal last winter.
The band is a little cagey about discussing the new record, but they say it is more consistent with their live performances than "At Dawn."
"I think it sounds really good," James says. "I'm really happy with it."
But does it have reverb?
"Tons," James says. "It makes me feel like a champion when I've got my reverb."
