Roots music’s reigning creative power couple: Derek Trucks poses with one of his beloved Gibson SGs and Susan Tedeschi holds the Gretsch White Falcon used for the new albums’ sessions.
Sometimes the universe brings together timeless energies that seem destined to explode into a beautiful new creation. All they need is the right people to harness them and unlock their potential. In the case examined here, those energies included an ancient Persian love story, a legendary ’70s rock album, the sometimes-painful realities of relationships, and a worldwide pandemic. The people are the wife-and-husband guitar duo of Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, along with the 10 other members of their Tedeschi Trucks Band (TTB). The creation? A four-part multimedia masterwork titled I Am the Moon.
As their fans know, Tedeschi, who’d built her career on stinging Tele tones and one of the most soulful blues voices in modern music, and Trucks, an electric slide prodigy who first made waves as a solo artist before joining the Allman Brothers Band, met in 1999, fell in love, married, and started a family. In 2010, their careers united as well when they formed TTB with a rotating cast of equally exceptional musicians. Many tours, four studio albums, a Grammy, and eight Blues Music Awards later, TTB has become something more akin to a rambling roots-music collective than a band.
Tragedy struck the ensemble in February 2019, with the death of original band member and multi-instrumentalist Kofi Burbridge (brother of former TTB bassist Oteil Burbridge). The group was devastated. Then, while still dealing with the loss of their dear friend, Covid put a hard stop to the entire music industry. Something had to give.
Tedeschi Trucks Band - I Am The Moon: Episode I. Crescent
“After the loss of Kofi and Covid, we felt like we needed to hard reset to figure out where we were,” Trucks observes. Away from the road, Tedeschi and Trucks poured their energy into the relationships that matter most—their own family.
“When the lockdown happened, our son was moving on to college,” Tedeschi says. “There was a real sense of, ‘This is our last real hang time with him.’ It was really nice to be in a place with our kids where none of us could go anywhere, and we actually got to spend real quality time together.”
According to Tedeschi, sending their son off into the world inspired one of I Am The Moon’s songs, “La Di Da.” But Covid and a difficult goodbye were only two of the energies coalescing into what would be TTB’s most ambitious project.
Meanwhile, Mike Mattison, TTB vocalist and guitarist, was immersing himself in the seventh-century poem Layla and Majnun, credited to Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, and the 1970 album it inspired, Derek and the Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. The band had already been examining the musical side of these works and had recorded a live rendition of the Layla album, with guest Trey Anastasio, at the 2019 Lockn’ Festival. That performance was released as Layla Revisited Live at Lockn’ in May 2021. The poem is considered the East’s Romeo and Juliet. It follows two lovers through a timeless tale of passion, joy, separation, and death. Eric Clapton and Duane Allman’s collaboration focused heavily on Manjun’s side of the story. And Mattison wanted to give it a twist.
Initially, TTB’s members began to work on the I Am the Moon album cycle apart during lockdown, but they amassed at Derek and Susan’s home when it was time to record.
Photo by David McClister
“He had been kicking around this idea of taking the Layla concept and flipping it on its head—thinking about the story from Layla’s perspective,” Trucks says. “He reached out to everyone in the band with a suggestion that we all dig into the poem while we’re at home, before we could really get together. The concept was to keep everyone tight.”
With the members immersing themselves in Layla and Majnun, the creative juices quickly began flowing. But to capture the results, Tedeschi and Trucks would need to bring the entire band together. So, after a whirlwind of quarantining, vaccines, and negative test results, TTB’s players moved in with Susan and Derek. “They came down and lived with us, the core of the band,” say Trucks. “Once a few of the songs were written, that creativity started really inspiring everybody and sparking ideas. It had its own gravity at that point. I’ve never been a part of anything quite like it.”
“It was nice having no rules and no time constraints and being able to let things flow and happen organically.”—Susan Tedeschi
Many songs and arrangements were created in the moment, right on the studio floor. According to Trucks, that gave the recordings the energy of being onstage. “We track with the core of the band. It’s two drums, bass, me and Sue, and keyboards. Sue’s usually in a vocal booth, either with a guitar and a quiet amp in the room or an amp in another room. I’m set up in the same room as the drummers with a big tent around my amp. So, it felt a lot more like it feels onstage when we’re exploring.”
While many songs were brought in by individual band members, Tedeschi agrees that the relaxed, open environment was crucial to the songwriting process. “It was really cool to hear some of the things that the other musicians were coming up with,” she says. “The boys would play the riff or something, like on ‘All the Love,’ and it was really fun to sing against. I was trying to take in everything that was going on in the moment, as well as the poem. So, as Derek was saying earlier, it was nice having no rules and no time constraints and being able to let things flow and happen organically.”
Derek Trucks’ Gear
Trucks’ primary instrument for I Am the Moon was the fourth prototype for the Gibson Custom Shop’s Dickey Betts SG VOS.
Photo by David McClister
Guitars
- Gibson Custom Shop Dickey Betts SG VOS prototype No. 4
- 1965 Gibson ES-335
- 1960s Supro tuxedo finish
- Vintage National resonator
- Vintage Gibson Roy Smeck acoustic
- 1930s Gibson L-00 with DeArmond pickup
- Various vintage Martin acoustics
Amps
- Early ’60s Fender Deluxe
- 1950s tweed Fender Deluxe
Effects
- Leslie cabinet
- Vintage Echoplex
Strings & Slide
- DR Customs
- Coricidin bottle slide
That freedom also applies to Trucks’ solos. “They’re all improv, mostly,” he says. “The solos are live on the floor because they’re what’s leading the track at that moment. Some of the solos you definitely think about more than others, but a lot of them, they happen naturally. That seems to be the best way.”
Though Trucks’ thick tone and inimitable slide work are all over nearly every song, Tedeschi’s rhythm playing drives the whole project. And when the two cut heads, as on “Playing With My Emotions,” it’s pure blues-rock magic. “‘Playing With My Emotions’ was actually in the moment,” Tedeschi remembers. “Derek looks over at me and is like, ‘Play!’ I’m like, ‘Oh, okay.’” [laughs]
“I haven’t used any Echoplexes or Leslies and things like that on our stuff. One of these days, I’ll get into it.”—Susan Tedeschi
“It’s fun when, thematically, that makes sense,” Trucks says. “But it wasn’t written or scripted when we went to that. Me and Sue, we play the dueling-guitar stuff live. An old friend, Colonel Bruce Hampton, would call them guitarguments.” [laughs]
“Playing With My Emotions” perfectly illustrates both players’ approach to tone. Trucks is all about his signature, driven slide sound, which is perfectly offset by Tedeschi’s cleaner-yet-still-biting Tele.
Susan Tedeschi’s Gear
Tedeschi played her 1970 Fender Stratocaster for the sessions. TTB fans regularly see this guitar, as well as her longtime favorite, a ’90s Telecaster, in concert.
Photo by David McClister
Guitars
- 1990s Fender Telecaster
- Late 2000s Gretsch White Falcon
- 1970 Fender Stratocaster
Strings & Picks
- DR .010s
- Fender Heavy
Amps
- 1964 Fender Deluxe Reverb
Effects
- 1968 Vox Clyde McCoy wah (gift from Jorma Kaukonen)
“I was using my Tele through my ’64 Deluxe [Reverb],” she says. “Whatever came out in that moment is what you got. I had every intention to go back in later and re-do it, but it never happened.”
If you’ve seen Tedeschi onstage, you’ve probably seen that Telecaster. It’s also featured on the cover of her breakout solo album, Just Won’t Burn. But, as Trucks remembers, the Tele wasn’t her only go-to for these sessions. She also played her 1970 Fender Strat, and a Gretsch White Falcon on “Circles ’Round the Sun.”
Trucks employed a wider range of instruments to cover the music’s acoustic, resonator, and electric tones. “I think on ‘Fall In,’ I’m using a National that we ended up running through an old Supro amp,” Trucks says. “And I have this old Supro [a 1960s tuxedo model] guitar that I use as well. We used a lot of different acoustic guitars. I have a 1930s Gibson L-00 that has an old DeArmond pickup, like Elmore James, that I used a few times. I think on ‘Emmaline’ I was playing that. I have an old Gibson Roy Smeck. And there are a few old Martins that we use.” In the studio, Derek goes for early-1960s Fender Deluxes.
“Me and Sue, we play the dueling guitar stuff live. An old friend, Colonel Bruce Hampton, would call them guitarguments.”—Derek Trucks
Although they use similar amps, Tedeschi and Trucks take wildly different approaches to their sounds. “I haven’t really done a ton of experimenting yet,” said Tedeschi. “I haven't used any Echoplexes or Leslies and things like that on our stuff. Those are all really fun, but for the most part, on this record, I’m playing vibrato or a wah. One of these days, I’ll get into it. I don’t know why I haven’t. I do enjoy doing that.”
While sticking to tones with plenty of vintage vibe, Trucks explores a bit more. His only rule is it has to sound great in the track. “A lot of times, me and Bobby T [longtime TTB recording engineer and road manager Bobby Tis] would experiment,” he says. “I would always have a second amplifier upstairs being recorded for some extra room sound. A lot of times, we would put a vintage Echoplex on it for a little bit of smudge. I would use that old Supro sometimes with that setup. I would plug into the Leslie quite a bit, too, for certain overdubs or a song like ‘Circles ’Round the Sun.’ It think that song is my guitar going through my Deluxe and an actual Leslie, which is a pretty great sound. Then there’s one or two songs where I took the solo on a tweed Deluxe. But it’s funny. You can get a sound on the floor that sounds incredible, and then you take a solo and you realize it’s either too little of something or too much of something.”
Rig Rundown - Tedeschi Trucks Band
Tedeschi has used her Tele for gathering autographs over the years. Easily readable are signatures from B.B. King. Hubert Sumlin, John Lee Hooker, and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. Check out the live gear used by Derek and Susan.
Trucks’ standout moment comes early in the four-album collection as he guides the band through the only instrumental, I Am the Moon: I. Crescent’s closing track, “Pasaquan.” Clocking in at over 12 minutes, the song is part Allman-style jam, part Middle Eastern melodicism, and part Floydian expanse. With a song like that, Trucks knew the band had to nail it. It had to sound electrifying.
“I didn’t want to play it more than once or twice in a row, ever,” says Trucks. “I wanted to make sure that, when we did capture it, it would be spontaneous. We really took wildly different approaches each time we played it.” Trucks also took an uncharacteristic approach to both his gear and technique on “Pasaquan.”
“I used a 1965 335 on it and tuned down to D. I realized there was no other way to get that sound. It’s made for that tune. And it’s all fingers. Over years of being onstage with the Allman Brothers, you’d have to improvise quite a bit in different ways, so you get your chops up for that.”
About the chapters of I Am the Moon—I. Crescent, II. Ascension, III. The Fall, IV. Farewell—Trucks says, “We had this episodic concept pretty early on, and we had the album titles pretty early on. We were listening to a lot of vinyl, and I started realizing that all of our favorite records were cut for vinyl, which is 35 or 40 minutes. We knew we had the right amount of material for that, and it worked.”
“We track with the core of the band. It’s two drums, bass, me and Sue, and keyboards.”—Derek Trucks
All four episodes were released a month apart to let listeners absorb each album of the saga to its fullest. But together, a beautiful story of love, distance, creation, and saying goodbye unfolds. This approach to releasing the albums paid off, and fans embraced the music faster than any previous TTB title.
“When we did the first show of this summer tour, I think we played two of our old original tunes, and then we did the whole Crescent record, start to finish,” Trucks says. “We were a little bit shocked at how well it went. Usually, when you break out new material, there’s a little bit of air that goes out of the room. This time around, it seemed like people connected with it pretty early on. Even when we’d get done playing the new stuff and go back to some of our older stuff, it didn’t have the same weight.”
“The poem was interesting, because you have a lot of different correlations with family and how everybody’s affected by each other,” she says. “Here, Layla is in a situation where she’s in love, and she has to be able to let go of it. She has to be able to say goodbye even though she doesn’t want to. I thought it had a parallel to being able to let go and say goodbye to my son. It was the perfect story and the perfect concept for that time.”
YouTube It
Watch Susan and Derek and their comrades in song play the title track from their multi-media extravaganza, I Am the Moon. Oh, and be sure to hang for Derek’s epic slide solo at 4:25!
Rafiq Bhatia’s guitar is a Flip Scipio Flippercaster with vintage Teisco and DeArmond pickups and has a strikingly original voice, even without effects or processing.
“Where [neuroscience and economics] intersect is the science of decision making,” explains Bhatia. Back when he was a new student at Oberlin College, “the lab that I was the most interested in being a part of was focused on decision making under various levels of risk and uncertainty, and trying to pick apart aspects of what happens in the brain before cognition kicks in. What are the precognitive aspects of decision making, and do they predict in any way the decisions that you will actually make?
“And that, I think, is part of the same underlying spirit of inquiry that making music, and especially improvised music with other people, is born of,” he continues. “You’re in these situations where there is uncertainty and there is also risk—and if there’s not enough risk, then it’s not that compelling.”
Bhatia’s latest solo release—his first in five years—is the EP Each Dream, A Melting Door, made in collaboration with pianist Chris Pattishall. The duo improvise their way through the five-track record, unwinding an extended impressionistic world wherein dreamlike piano underscores a range of guitar tones that glimmer in an abstract light. It’s clear that Bhatia has no intention of conveying a traditional sonic image of a guitar, instead preferring to manipulate the instrument as a device for painting colors of sound.
Bhatia’s collaborator on his new EP is pianist and composer Chris Pattishall, at left.
Photo by Ebru Yildiz
Of course, before even getting into the methods of how he achieves those sounds, Bhatia says, “I think it’s less important how I get the sounds out of the guitar than the reasons why I might choose to go looking for them. And the way I get them out of the guitar today might be drastically different than the way I get them out of the guitar tomorrow. I care deeply about the sounds that are made, but I’m so not about the perception that you have to acquire all these ‘things’ to make it.”
His prized 6-string, the Flippercaster, was designed by the reclusive-yet-storied luthier Flip Scipio, who’s built and worked on guitars and basses for Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and many others. After coming to recognize Scipio’s trademark on builds he came across in various New York studios, Bhatia sought him out in an effort he compares to the search for the legendary swordsmith, Hattori Hanzō, in Kill Bill. “He’s the nicest dude ever; it just took me a while to find him. But if you go visit him, he’ll make you either an amazing AeroPress coffee or a mug of smoky lapsang tea and then sit and talk with you,” Bhatia adds, smiling.
The guitar is equipped with vintage Teisco and DeArmond pickups wired to a blend knob in place of a switch, which Bhatia loves. “I usually don’t want half and half; I want a little bit of one and mostly all of the other. And to me it’s very dependent on what the room sounds like and what musical context I’m in,” he explains. The Flippercaster goes into a small pedalboard, the brain of which is a custom Eventide H90. Bhatia collaborated with the pedal manufacturer on the development of the device’s design.
The duo improvise their way through the five-track record, unwinding an extended impressionistic world wherein dreamlike piano underscores a range of guitar tones that glimmer in an abstract light.
“I was really excited,” Bhatia shares. “I was like, ‘Can you make it switch other pedals in and out of the chain like one of those pedalboard controllers? And let’s say I’m using one of your reverbs, but I want to put distortion on it. Can you make it only affect the wet signal?’ I thought they’d maybe do 10 percent of what I asked, and they did basically all of it,” he concludes, laughing.
Aside from his expression and volume pedals, his pedalboard is otherwise made up of a Klon KTR and a ZVEX Fat Fuzz Factory, the latter of which he has particular fun with. “I’m very jealous of saxophone players because they have breath,” he prefaces. “But what I’ve found is that if you play in such a way where you flirt with the edge of the [Fat Fuzz Factory’s built-in] gate, you can get the ends of notes to crackle and decay, almost like when you hear a saxophone player breathe out at the end of the note.”
His pedalboard then goes through a Universal Audio Apollo Twin MkII interface, which connects to Ableton Live on his MacBook Pro. Bhatia then uses two MIDI controllers—one on the floor with a digital display, and one with knobs that he controls with his left hand—that are both color-coded to match the lanes of his session in the DAW. “I can then grab these little bits of things that I’m playing, and bring them in and out and manipulate them while I’m also playing the guitar and generating other ones. I’m excited about it because it’s a process that is helping me erase the line between what I’ve been doing on the guitar and what I’ve been doing away from the guitar. I feel like I’m getting a little bit closer to where I can play, and the sound is saying who I am.”
Rafiq Bhatia’s Gear
Filmmaker David Lynch has been a powerful influence on Bhatia—a cover of “The Voice of Love,” from Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, appears at the end of Each Dream, A Melting Door—as have a number of hip-hop producers and jazz musicians.
Photo by John Klukas
Guitars
- 2018 Flip Scipio Flippercaster with vintage Teisco and DeArmond pickups
Amps
Live:
- Strymon Iridium (with replaced IRs and EQ tweaks) > Telefunken TDA-2 DI > Universal Audio Apollo Twin MkII > MacBook Pro running Ableton Live > FOH
Studio:
- Swart Atomic Space Tone Pro
- Anderson custom 1x12
- Swart Space Tone Atomic Jr.
Effects
- Ableton Live controlled by Morningstar MC6 PRO and DJ TechTools Midi Fighter Twister
- Eventide H90
- ZVEX Fat Fuzz Factory
- Klon KTR Overdrive
- Lehle Dual Expression
- Sound Sculpture Volcano Volume
Strings & Picks
- D’Addario NYXL Balanced Tension (.011–.050)
- Bluebird 1.5 mm custom picks, handmade from vintage Galalith poker chips
Filmmaker David Lynch has been a powerful influence on Bhatia—a cover of “The Voice of Love,” from Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, appears at the end of Each Dream, A Melting Door—as have a number of hip-hop producers and jazz musicians. Bhatia shares, “If you listen to Madlib beats, sometimes he’s doing a lot and it’s a million different small elements that have been collaged together, but other times it’s just a sample that he flipped and he didn’t change anything except for the loop point. But whether it’s something he made while fussing over all these little ingredients, or it’s just something he looped, you hear two seconds of it and it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s Madlib.’”
He mentions how that effect similarly belongs to icons such as Thelonious Monk and Jimi Hendrix. “Those are all the heroes, and they say something that’s so personal and honest to who they are and their experience that right away, you just know [snaps fingers]—it’s them. To me it sounds like honesty, and it sounds like an expression in many cases of hybridity.
“I was in class in 9th grade when the planes hit the Twin Towers, and it was on our school news channel,” he continues, emphasizing the discomfort it created for him as someone of Muslim origin, which drew unwanted speculation from his non-Muslim peers. “That was the backdrop to how I got into playing the guitar and listening to music. So, when I would hear folks who seemed to be able to take all these different aspects of who they were and what their experience was and distill it into a way of communicating through sound, that was really inspiring. It just felt like therapy to engage in trying to figure out how to do that.”
For the release of his last solo album, Breaking English, Bhatia performs here with a trio, showcasing his uniquely creative approach on the instrument in a more traditional context.
With Is, My Morning Jacket turned to an outside producer, Brendan O’Brien, who has worked with Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and many others.
Their latest album, Is, represents not just a continuation of the rebirth that began with 2021’s self-titled effort, but a profound evolution in their creative process: Currently, MMJ—which also includes guitarist Carl Broemel, bassist Tom Blankenship, keyboardist Bo Koster, and drummer Patrick Hallahan—find themselves in the midst of what Broemel characterizes as a “special and interesting era,” one marked by newfound inner peace, a willingness to relinquish control, and, as James simply puts it, “the freedom to do whatever the fuck we want,” that has resulted in some of their most focused and dynamic work to date.
Is emerges as the product of this revitalized My Morning Jacket, distilled from a wealth of material that James had accumulated, throwing “every single idea into the pot,” he says, rather than reserving some for solo projects as he’d done in the past. The result is both concentrated and adventurous, a tightly focused 10-song collection that still, in characteristic MMJ fashion, roams freely across stylistic boundaries. From the soaring leadoff track “Out in the Open,” a sort of rootsy take on U2’s widescreen anthem rock, to the evocative and soulful first single “Time Waited,” the heavy-riffing “Squid Ink” to the hypnotic psych-folk workout “Beginning From the Ending,” the lilting, harmony-laden pop nugget “I Can Hear Your Love” to the ominous minor-key prowl “River Road,” the album covers vast musical territory. “Jim has a giant archive of song ideas and it’s always growing,” Broemel says, and then laughs. “I think it’s the good and the bad thing about having a digital recording device in your hand at all times—you can capture every idea. So we had so much to work through.”
SoundStream
But Is also marks something of a letting go for James, who, for the first time in years, welcomed an outside producer into the fold. And not just any producer, but capital-P producer Brendan O’Brien, whose extensive resume spans music’s biggest names, from Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Rage Against the Machine to Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and AC/DC. For James, who had long acted as the band’s producer in an effort to “play all the positions myself,” this surrender of control was unusual. As for why they went with O’Brien, James says, “The thing that really struck me about Brendan was once I started playing him demos, he immediately had ideas and opinions that were really constructive without making it about his ego. He’s really great about telling you, ‘Ah, I don’t think this song’s as good as the rest.’ Or, ‘I don’t really like this chorus, what if we replaced it with something else?’ He was just always about the song.”
Adds Broemel, “He managed to pull us out of us, if that makes sense.”
“I think it’s the good and the bad thing about having a digital recording device in your hand at all times—you can capture every idea.” - Carl Broemel
To be sure, many of these songs both took shape and transformed in the studio. “I Can Hear Your Love” and “Beginning From the Ending,” for example, evolved from solo recordings with drum programming and sound effects into fuller band arrangements. But perhaps the most dramatic metamorphosis was “Out in the Open.” The song originated during the pandemic as a ukulele riff that James found so complex he “couldn’t even play it,” and that he eventually arranged into what he calls “kind of a ballad.” It sat for a couple years before he brought it to the band during these sessions. “When we listened to it, everybody had the same feeling as I did: ‘We like the riff, but where does it go? What does it do?’” James recalls. O’Brien provided the breakthrough. “He said, ‘What if we turn this into a rock song? Bring in the electric guitar, amp it up, and keep it getting bigger?’” The final version blends James’ original ukulele recording with a full-band, big-rock arrangement—what he describes as “a really cool merging of the unknown inspired by Brendan.”
Jim James' Gear
In addition to his Flying V, Jim James’ Gibson arsenal includes three ES-335s, an ES-355 prototype, a vintage Gibson Barney Kessel, a modded 1962 Reissue Les Paul Custom (pre-SG), and a Hummingbird.
Photo by Nick Langlois
Guitars
- Gibson ES-335 (black)
- Gibson ES-335 (sunburst)
- Epiphone Jim James ES-335
- Gibson ES-355 prototype
- Fender Custom Shop Tele
- Fender Custom Shop Strat
- Reuben Cox Custom Plywood T-Style
- Gibson Barney Kessel (vintage)
- Gretsch Country Gentleman (vintage)
- Modified Gibson 1962 Reissue Les Paul Custom (pre-SG)
- Gibson Flying V
- Gibson Hummingbird
- Gibson J-45
Amps
- 3 Monkeys Orangutan
- 3 Monkeys cab
- Rivera Silent Sister isolation cabinet with Mesa/Boogie Celestion speaker
Effects
- Devi Ever US Fuzz Monster
- MXR MC406 CAE Buffer
- ISP Deci-Mate G Decimator
- Boss BD-2W Waza Craft Blues Driver
- Boss OC-2
- Electro-Harmonix MEL9
- Malekko Spring Chicken
- EarthQuaker Devices Ghost Echo
- EarthQuaker Devices Spatial Delivery V2
- Universal Audio Golden Reverberator
- Universal Audio Astra Modulation Machine
- Universal Audio Starlight Echo Station
- Spaceman Orion
- SoloDallas The Schaffer Boost
- Radial SGI-44
- Strymon blueSky
- Boss DD-7 Digital Delay
- Strymon Zuma
- Strymon Ojai
- D’Addario CT-20 Tuner
Strings & Picks
- D’Addario Pure Nickel (.009–.045)
- D’Addario Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Extra Light (.010–.047)
- Dunlop Tortex .73 mm
This anything-goes mindset extended to the band’s approach to guitars and amplification. While James and Broemel brought their recent arsenal—including James’ Fender Princeton amp, his Gibson ES-335 signature model, a Gibson ES-355 prototype “that Gibson made me when we were first figuring out my guitar that I use a lot in the studio,” and his custom Reuben Cox plywood T-style guitar, alongside Broemel’s treasured 1988 Bigsby-equipped Les Paul Standard and Duesenberg Starplayer TV—O’Brien’s studio offered what Broemel describes as “a disgusting amount of amazing guitars.” The amp selection was equally impressive, running the gamut of Fender classics (“the brown amps, the black amps, the silver amps,” as Broemel puts it) along with discoveries like a Port City head that became a frequent go-to. Rather than being fussy about gear choices, the band found themselves drawn to whatever served the song best. “Half the time I wound up with one of Brendan’s SGs in my hand through one of Brendan’s amps,” James recalls. “I used to be more precious about it, but now I really just don’t give a shit at all, as long as it sounds right with the song.” This approach yielded particularly dramatic results on “Die For It,” where Broemel created a massive guitar solo by positioning two amps—“a Super Reverb and something else,” he says—in the middle of the room, capturing what he calls a “giant stereo thing that’s so wide and washed-out and crazy, kind of like what it feels like at our shows.”
“Half the time I wound up with one of Brendan’s SGs in my hand through one of Brendan’s amps.” - Jim James
It’s this sort of liberation from old habits that has helped recharge the band after almost three decades together. Although, James admits, “It ebbs and flows. There’s been periods where it’s been very easy and periods where it’s been very difficult.” Is reflects this hard-won wisdom; its title speaks to the fact that the music “just is what it is,” James says. “The record always makes itself. You really have to let go.”
Carl Broemel's Gear
Carl Broemel’s favorite 6-string is his 1988 Bigsby-equipped Les Paul Standard, which he puts to the test here during a Savannah, Georgia, concert.
Photo by Chris Mollere
Guitars
- 1988 Gibson Les Paul Standard with Bigsby
- Duesenberg Starplayer TV
- Duesenberg Caribou
- Creston Custom
Amps
- Carr Slant 6V head
- Emperor 4x12 cab with Warehouse speakers
- Rivera Silent Sister isolation cabinet with Warehouse speaker
Effects
- Hologram Electronics Chroma Console
- Electro-Harmonix POG
- Kingsley Harlot V3 Tube Overdrive
- JAM Pedals Delay Llama Xtreme
- Origin Effects SlideRIG Compact Deluxe MkII Compressor
- Eventide H9
- Boss TU-2
- Strymon Zuma
- GigRig G3 Switching System
Strings & Picks
- D’Addario EXL140 (.010–.052)
- Dunlop Tortex .73 mm
It’s a perspective that has enabled My Morning Jacket to find a path forward. As Broemel notes, “In some ways, all we want to be is like a brand-new band again, but that’s impossible. So we’ve just gotta keep going.” One thing that never changes, he adds, “is that the feeling of playing a good show never gets old. It’s like catching a huge fish. That’s evergreen for me.”
James agrees, noting that the band has never sounded better. “Music’s infinite,” he says. “We’ll never exhaust all the possibilities. As long as you’re trying something new, that’s what keeps it fun and fresh, hopefully for us and for the listener.”
YouTube It
Broemel, with his Creston Custom, and James, with a Fender Strat (and purple heart-shaped sunglasses), lead My Morning Jacket through the heavy riffs, deep grooves, and big unison bends of “Squid Ink” on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
