
A man and the blues: Tinsley Ellis performs in concert with his 1969 Martin D-35, which was a gift from his father.
On his new album, the blues-guitar badass steps away from the crackling electric performances that have won him an international reputation for a bristling trip through acoustic-roots music.
Acoustic blues is a form of interdimensional travel. And on his new album, Naked Truth, Tinsley Ellis displays his mastery of being everywhere, all at once. I’d say that he has one foot in the red clay of the Delta and the dust of Africa, where the music arose from; another in the present, because breathing life into this style requires committed intention; and another in the future, where his own songs and selection of covers urge the genre. But that would be a weird choice of metaphor, because, like most of us, he only has two feet.
Besides, Naked Truth is more a matter of the head, brain, voice, and heart. Playing a 1937 National resonator and a 1969 Martin D-35, and stomping his foot for rhythmic emphasis, Ellis travels a well-plotted course through the music’s dimensions. The past eloquently echoes in his roughhouse performance of Delta-blues grandfather Son House’s parable, “Death Letter Blues,” one of the greatest stories of love and loss ever told, and his own “Windowpane,” which borrows the haunted, high-singing, minor-key template of Skip James. Ellis’ rowdy “Devil in the Room” gets its title from a line by his late friend, the musical eccentric Col. Bruce Hampton—who always instructed his bands to “put the Devil in the room.” And Ellis’ “Tallahassee Blues” and “Grown Ass Man” look at heartbreak from positions of sadness and strength, respectively. It’s the instrumentals, often, that lean hardest into the future, as Ellis’ fingerpicking and open tunings step away from blues tradition with a balance of pedal tones and melody that sync more easily with the American primitive movement and acoustic, textural music. That’s familiar territory for fans of Will Ackerman and trailblazer Leo Kottke, whose “The Sailor’s Grave on the Prairie” offers a gently assertive display of Ellis’ slide and fingerpicking prowess on Naked Truth.
“I didn’t want to sit down and practice. That’s just … oh God! But writing songs is another thing.”
“Playing acoustic solo blues is a totally personal statement,” Ellis observes. “Historically, we’re talking about musicians who could do the whole thing on their own. Men like R.L. Burnside had players who accompanied them, but they weren’t needed. They could make a roomful of people dance or smile by themselves.”
It’s only recently that Ellis has come to his acoustic solo reckoning, but his singing and playing have always sounded personal. For most of his 49 years onstage, he’s been a bandleader, earning a reputation as a skilled electric bluesman. The Atlanta-based guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter’s 22 previous studio recordings have reflected steady artistic growth—from his tenure in the Heartfixers, which he formed after college, and through a chain of albums bearing his name. Storm Warning, in 1994, was a hallmark, packed with originals, blues classics, and even Joe Zawinul’s punchy soul instrumental “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.” That album’s “A Quitter Never Wins” was, at the time, the best summary of his electric vocabulary: a six-minute exhibition of rich, powerful singing with a touch of grit in his soulful vocal phrasing; a guitar tone that free-ranges from sweet and pure to scooped, attenuated-wah mids to hairy raw-edged soloing; and dynamics from mouse to lion. Ellis broadened his propensity for risk with 2013’s Get It!, an all-instrumental, retro-guitar freakout with eight original compositions that ricocheted from his early surf- and garage-rock influences to the mighty, Jeff Beck-like “Anthem for a Fallen Hero.” More recently, his trilogy of Winning Hand, Devil May Care, and Ice Cream in Hell helped jolt him to the Olympus of modern blues rock. Joe Bonamassa, a fellow Olympian, has described Ellis as “a national treasure.”
“I did it myself in my studio—just miked my foot and put a mic on the guitar and vocals and did take after take until I had what I wanted.”
Ellis recorded his first acoustic album in his home studio, save for a track cut at his Atlanta neighbor Eddie 9V’s recording room.
Ellis spent 10 years dedicatedly working his way to becoming a musician who could “do the whole thing on his own”—which requires not only exceptional playing but great storytelling to keep an audience engaged. Onstage, his between-song tales of blues history and encounters with its characters, the fizzled romances or epic friendships that became a source of lyrics, and his wonder at the discoveries he’s had during his musical life bring his audiences closer, creating a palpable bond.
“I think it has a slight tear in the cone, so it makes a slight rattle.”
“Naked Truth is an album I’ve wanted to make since I started posting acoustic videos on social media—my Sunday Morning Coffee Songs—in 2013,” says Ellis, referring to his regular series of Facebook performances. During the pandemic, when his steady diet of gigs ended, “I was off the road for almost two years. I didn’t want to lose my chops, so I started designating every morning.... Well, I didn’t want to sit down and practice. That’s just … oh God! But writing songs is another thing. I designated Sunday mornings for posting songs and watching my news shows. The other six days, I wrote songs and dragged them into different folders on my computer. One folder was called ‘Acoustic,’ and it became apparent that I had a cool, quirky mixture of blues and folk songs in there. I approached Bruce [Iglauer, head of Alligator Records] about the concept of an acoustic album, and he was open to it.”
Tinsley Ellis' Gear
Ellis is currently on a cross-country solo concert tour—one musician, two guitars, and a car.
Photo by Joseph A. Rosen
Acoustic Guitars
- 1937 National O Series resonator
- 1968 Martin D-35
Recording Microphones
- Shure SM57, Neumann TLM 103
Strings, Slide, & Picks
- Ernie Ball Earthwood (.012–.054, for the Martin)
- Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky (.012–.056, for the National, with an unwound G at the advice of Warren Haynes)
- Brass slide
- Medium-gauge picks (typically for standard tuning)
So, the next step was recording in earnest. “I did it myself in my studio—just miked my foot and put a mic on the guitar and vocals and did take after take until I had what I wanted. One song on the album, ‘Death Letter Blues,’ was from a demo I did at Eddie 9V’s studio here in Atlanta. I just couldn’t get a version that sounded as good as that demo.” Ellis depended on two microphones to achieve the rich, slightly dark guitar tones on Naked Truth: a Neumann TLM 103 and a Shure SM57. (The recordings were mixed and mastered by Atlanta-based producer Tony Terrebonne.) The rest was in his touch, which is determined, tough, and precise—exactly the way he saw Muddy Waters and other blues legends bear down on their guitars as he was coming up in the music. The various tunings on the album—standard, drop D, open G, open Dm, and DADGAD—also add variety to its sound. And then there’s his National, which has been appealingly raucous since he bought it years ago at Willies American Guitars in St. Paul, Minnesota, while on tour.
“I sat at the feet of Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters a bunch of times.”
“I think it has a slight tear in the cone, so it makes a slight rattle,” Ellis explains. “The salesperson there said, ‘Now, you’re going to want to replace it,’ and I did, but it didn't sound right. It was too precise, too bluegrass, too Jerry Douglas. So, I put it back in there. I like it, and nobody’s ever complained about it.” Consider it the organic equivalent of a low-gain distortion pedal.
As a child of the ’60s and early ’70s, Ellis grew up on the original wave of garage rock, when bands like the Standells and Nightcrawlers were setting teenage angst to three nasty chords, and more expert pickers, like Johnny Rivers and Lonnie Mack, were clearing the path for the arrival of the first generation of classic rock-guitar heroes. Thanks to an older brother, blues also seeped into his listening. That led to a pivotal experience at the Swinger’s Lounge in the Marco Polo hotel in North Miami Beach, Florida, not far from where the Ellis family lived.
Backstage, all 87 years of its life are reflected in the finish of Ellis’ National resonator.
Photo by Jim Summaria
“B.B. King and his band were playing there for a week, and whoever played there had to do a teen matinee,” Ellis recalls. “My dad loaded up the station wagon and took me and my friends to see this guy, who was supposed to be ‘the Man.’ My brother had come into my room when I was listening to Mike Bloomfield, on the Al Kooper Super Session album, and said, ‘If you like this guy, you’ve got to hear B.B. King.’ So, there we were. I sat right in the front. It just blew my mind! I could see where the real blues was coming from—where Duane Allman, Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, and Johnny Winter were getting it. And then, after the show, he greeted us in the lobby and talked to us for what seemed like hours. It was probably really 45 minutes or something. He was the nicest man. And that was it for me. After that, I was always in the front row. I sat at the feet of Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters a bunch of times.”
Ellis has performed with and observed a coterie of his blues influences since the late 1960s. Here, he poses backstage with the high-octane “Master of the Telecaster,” Albert Collins, in 1980.
Photo by Lisa Seifert/Courtesy of Tinsley Ellis
The die thus cast, Ellis played through junior high, high school, and college, and got hired by an Atlanta-based touring blues band called the Alley Cats after he graduated. Later, he put together the Heartfixers, who became one of the Big Peach’s favorite musical sons, and cut their first album with folklorist and musicologist George Mitchell as producer. Their 1982 debut was made in one night, for $105. And from there, Ellis made his way into the international blues scene. Over the decades of constant touring, Ellis landed at the Alligator label, then to Capricorn Records, then to Telarc, and back to Alligator. (“I got passed around like a joint,” he observes, laughing.) He also released music independently, on his Heartfixer label, and made his return to Alligator again in 2018, with his electric blues style now fully grown. Songs like that album’s “Kiss This World,” where Ellis echoes the furious expressionism of Buddy Guy, and the epic “Saving Grace,” which recalls both Jimi Hendrix and Robin Trower in its roaring, swirling, Uni-Vibe vibe, mark him as a player for the ages.
Which brings us back to his navigation of the omniverse of acoustic blues. “One thing I’ve noticed about these shows, as opposed to my electric shows of more than 45 years, is that people are smiling. With my electric show, there was so much snarling and stuff onstage that the audience was also making serious faces. I didn’t see a lot of smiles. So, I think really what I need to do is get to where I’m playing some music that’s going to put more smiles on people’s faces, because with what’s going on in the world, people really need to lighten up. Maybe I can be somebody that will help them do that, and maybe this album is doing that—for them and for me.”
YouTube It
Tinsley Ellis and his slightly rattling National resonator faithfully conjure the fire-and-brimstone spirit of the Delta-blues great Son House in a performance of the latter’s “Death Letter Blues,” from Ellis’ new album Naked Truth.
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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.
The Son Lux guitarist—and David Lynch aficionado—says an experimental musician needs creative uncertainty, that an artist must be curious, and should ask questions in the process of creating sound. With the release of his new EP, Each Dream, A Melting Door, he breaks down the methods and philosophies he practices in his own work.
“It feels like a lifetime ago, but yes,” experimental guitarist/composer Rafiq Bhatia says when I bring up that he studied neuroscience and economics in college. Today, Bhatia is far more defined by his musical career—primarily with his band Son Lux, which also composed the Oscar-nominated score for 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. However, he shares that there is an intersection between these seemingly disparate fields.
“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.
The series features three distinct models—The Bell,The Dread, and The Parlor—each built to deliver rich, resonant acoustic sound with effortless amplification.
Constructed with solid Sitka spruce tops and solid mahogany back & sides, the Festival Series offers warm, balanced tone with incredible sustain. A Fishman pickup system, paired with hidden volume and tone control knobs inside the sound hole, ensures seamless stage and studio performance.
Grover 16:1 ratio tuners provide superior tuning stability, while D’Addario strings enhance clarity and playability. Each guitar comes with a heavy-padded gig bag, making it a perfect choice for gigging musicians and traveling artists.
Key Features of the Festival Series Guitars:
- Solid Sitka Spruce Top – Provides bright, articulate tone with impressive projection
- Solid Mahogany Back & Sides – Adds warmth and depth for a well-balanced sound
- Fishman Pickup System – Delivers natural, high-fidelity amplified tone
- Hidden Volume & Tone Control Knobs – Discreetly placed inside the sound hole for clean aesthetics
- Grover Tuners (16:1 Ratio) – Ensures precise tuning stability
- D’Addario Strings – Premium strings for enhanced sustain and playability
- Heavy-Padded Gig Bag Included – Provides protection and convenience for musicians on the go
Mooer Prime Minimax M2 Intelligent Pedal boasts 194 effects models, 80 preset slots, MNRS and third-party sample file compatibility, an 80-minute looping module, internal drum machine, high-precision tuner, Bluetooth support, and a rechargeable lithium battery.
Over the last few years, Mooer has released several Prime multi-effects devices, including the Prime P1, P2, S1, and most recently in 2024, the Prime Minimax M1. Excitingly, the company is kicking off 2025 with a brand new addition to the Prime family–the Prime Minimax M2 Intelligent Pedal.
Within this small multi-effects device, a whole lot of functionality is packed in, including an impressive 194 effects models, including overdrive, preamp simulators, cabinet models, delays, reverbs, modulation effects, etc., and more. In typical Mooer style, though, the company took things a step further by offering limitless flexibility through the support of its in-house MNRS sample files, as well as third-party IR sample files. Essentially, this means that users can download additional tonal emulations and effects from the Mooer Cloud and third-party sources to the device, which they can then save across 80 preset slots.
As with some past models in the Prime series, the M2 sports a convenient touchscreen design, facilitating easy browsing through the devices banks of presets. However, guitarists are not limited to interfacing with the pedal in this way, as it also features two footswitches, both of which can be used to switch between presets in each bank. There is even a MIDI jack built into the device, enabling users to connect their MIDI controllers to extend the control functions, and the MOOER F4 wireless footswitch support is also supported. Essentially, these augmentation options facilitate additional footswitches to ensure switching preset tones is always as quick and seamless as possible within any workflow.
While the Prime M2 Intelligent Pedal is primarily designed for effects and tonal simulations, it also comes packed with an array of other useful features. For example, it contains a looping module with a hefty 80-minute capacity, in addition to 10 recording save slots to ensure that any looping creations can be kept for future use in performances. Similar to past looper modules in Mooer's products, users are also free to overdub their recordings and even undo or redo their overdubs, offering a lot of real-time flexibility for creating loop-based musical structures.
As if the addition of a looper wasn’t enough, this feature is also synchronizable with an internal drum machine and metronome, a combination that includes 56 drum grooves and 4 metronome varieties. Ultimately, it’s a reminder that Mooer clearly recognizes and wishes to solve the struggles that musicians have when attempting to produce precise loops while staying in time. Upon commencing recording, the drum machine can produce four initial beats to serve as a count-in cue, and of course, this can be combined with the device's tap-tempo control for dynamic use. Best of all, this feature can also be applied to modulation and delay effects, ensuring that they work perfectly in time with any performance.
Extra features are included to complete this all-in-one pedal, including a high-precision tunerwith fully customizable frequency ranges. Guitarists can even leverage the M2’s built-inBluetooth input support, allowing them to practice, jam, and even produce looped musicalstructures over their favorite backing tracks, band prototypes, and musical pieces.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for existing Mooer product users, the Prime M2 also boasts an impressive variety of audio routing systems. As was previously mentioned, that includes Bluetooth input, as well as industry standards such as dual-channel stereo output, perfect for stereo delay and modulation effects. It also supports headphone output for those who wish to practice in silence, and even OTG recording, which means that guitarists can record their creations directly to their smartphone whilst on the go.
Speaking of on-the-go, Mooer is continuing its recent portable-play focus with the Prime M2Intelligent Pedal, as it is fitted with a built-in rechargeable lithium battery with a battery life of up to 6 hours. Ultimately, this means that even a lack of local power sources won’t get in the way of rehearsals and live performances. Combined with the pedal’s lightweight and small build, it truly is an ideal addition to the pedalboard of any traveling musician.
Overall, the Prime M2 Intelligent Pedal is set to be an impressive new addition to the Prime series. It features augmented functionality when compared to past models, yet still in a minimalist and easy-to-use package, keeping the size small and light yet still packing in footswitches, a touch screen, and other flexible control systems.
Features:
- 194 built-in effect models and tonal emulations
- 80 preset slots for storing downloaded MNRS and third-party sample files
- Compatibility with the MOOER Cloud tone-sharing platform
- Built-in 80-minute looping module
- Record, overdub, pause, delete, and playback functions for looping
- Internal drum machine module, stocked with 56 drum grooves
- 4 unique metronomes
- Synchronization between drum machine and looper
- Convenient count-in cue function support from the metronome
- High-precision and customizable tuner module
- 2 multi-function footswitches
- 1.28-inch touchscreen interface
- LED digital display
- LED charge indicator
- Portable USB/OTG recording
- Direct compatibility with the MOOER prime mobile APP and MOOER Studio desktop software for preset management
- Bluetooth 5.0 audio playback
- 3000mAh integrated lithium battery with up to 6 hours of use time
- DC 5V/2A power supply and charging
- 3 hours charging time
- Low weight of 228g
- Compact, at 74mm (L), 125mm (W), and 49mm (H)
- Sample rate of 44.1kHz
- Bit depth of 24bit
- Compatible with MOOER F4 wireless footswitch
- 3.5mm MIDI port
- Mono TS ¼” input
- Stereo TS ¼” output
- 3.5mm headphone output
- Power switch button
The Prime Minimax M2 Intelligent Pedal will be available from the official distributors or retailersworldwide.
For more information, please visit mooeraudio.com.
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.
Evolutionary, rocking, anthemic, psychedelic, and free—the band’s guitarists share the story of the making of MMJ’s visceral, widescreen new album.
“Time is such a fun thing to think about, how elastic it is and how strange it is,” muses My Morning Jacket singer and guitarist Jim James. For a band that’s weathered more than a quarter-century together, that elasticity and strangeness feel particularly poignant. After a period of uncertainty and creative fatigue that left fans, and the members themselves, questioning the group’s future, My Morning Jacket has over the past several years emerged reinvigorated.
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!