My Morning Jacket and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats are teaming up for the Eye To Eye Tour, featuring equal-length sets and a unique performance order swap at each show.
The tour gets underway September 10 at Wilmington, NCās Live Oak Bank Pavilion at Riverfront Park and then continues through the month.
Tickets will be available starting with an artist presale that begins Tuesday, March 26 at 10:00 am (local). Registration is available now exclusively at www.eyetoeyetour.com. Additional presales will continue throughout the week ahead of the general onsale which begins on Friday, March 29 at 10:00 am (local). Complete details and performance order can be found at www.eyetoeyetour.com.
āWe were lucky enough to see Nathaniel and some of the Night Sweats at Preservation Hall in New Orleans some years ago-our minds were blown, our hearts were opened, and we got swept up in the joy of it all,ā said My Morning Jacketās Jim James. We are so happy to share the stage with these fine folks for a run full of peace, love, music, and fun!ā
"We are long-time lovers of My Morning Jacket, and over the years have grown a close friendship,ā shares Nathaniel Rateliff. āItās so special to become friends with musicians and peers that you admire and weāre looking forward to bringing our love for each other on the road.ā
MY MORNING JACKET // NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS EYE TO EYE TOUR 2024
- September 10āWilmington, NCāLive Oak Bank Pavilion at Riverfront Park
- September 12āCharlotte, SCāCredit One Stadium
- September 13āCharlotte, NCāPNC Music Pavilion
- September 14āAlpharetta, GAāAmeris Bank Amphitheatre
- September 16āJacksonville, FLāDaily's Place
- September 18āNashville, TNāAscend Amphitheater
- September 19āNashville, TNāAscend Amphitheater
- September 24āSyracuse, NYāEmpower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview
- September 26āPhiladelphia, PAāThe Mann Center
- September 27āColumbia, MDāMerriweather Post Pavilion
- September 28āRaleigh, NCāCoastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek
My Morning Jacket, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, and the nonāprofit REVERB are partnering on this co-headline tour to reduce the environmental footprint of their tour and take action on the climate crisis. In addition to a comprehensive tour sustainability program and fan Action Village at each show, the bands will be supporting REVERBās climate portfolio which funds projects that measurably reduce greenhouse gas pollution, address climate justice, and directly decarbonize the music industry. For more, please visit reverb.org.
For more information, please visit eyetoeyetour.com.
Joy Oladokun was driven to pick up the guitar when she was 10 years old after seeing a video of Tracy Chapman performing āFast Carā solo at Wembley Stadium in 1988.
With her new record Proof of Life, the alt-folk guitarist and singer-songwriter wrestles with mortality and change, and emerges triumphant and hopeful.
āItās nice here,ā Joy Oladokun says through the phone. āThe mountains are beautiful.ā The 31-year-old Nashville-based guitarist and singer-songwriter is taking a moment to breathe and clear her head in Asheville, North Carolina, while on tour with her friend Noah Kahan. Touring is fun, especially with pals, but itās also tiring and stressful. Oladokun is doing her best to stay balanced since the release of her fourth LP, the lush, hopeful Proof of Life. The record indulges the best bits of pop, R&B, indie rock, and folk, all sewn together with Oladokunās defiant optimism and vulnerable, late-night-diary-entry songwriting.
Proof of Life, too, is a balancing act, swaying expertly between subdued acoustic ballads, plush, swooning electronics, and heady electric guitar churns. Itās clear about the state of the world: āNewspaper says the worldās on fire / People yelling and the waterās rising,ā Oladokun sings in cool harmony over calming acoustics on track two, āChanges,ā before submitting at the chorusā end, āIām trying to keep up with the changes.ā But opener āKeeping The Light Onā is a breezy, textured mission statement to always make oneās way back out of the darkness. The third track, āTaking Things For Granted,ā is a humming, light-footed indie-rock jam that recounts Oladokunās lonely 8th birthday, when no one from school came to her party. Itās a real-life, heartbreaking memory, relayed over a beachy-road-trip arrangement. These are the huge, existential places Oladokun takes us with her voice and her guitar just in that trio of opening songs.
āThis record is as autobiographical as anything Iāve ever made,ā says Oladokun. āItās actually me this time, itās not a bunch of songs about ideas. Are people gonna like me?ā
Joy Oladokun - "Weāre All Gonna Die"
Oladokun admits itās frightening to be this vulnerable, especially when, at this stage in her career, she has voices around her telling her how she ought to create her art. But the specificity is paying off. On tour, people are expressing how meaningfully her songs capture and validate even their own experiences. āThatās the ultimate goal for me,ā Oladokun says.
Oladokunās artistic path has taken her across North America, on stages with John Mayer and My Morning Jacket, but the road can be traced back to one turning point when she was growing up in Casa Grande, Arizona. She was only allowed to watch TV on weekends, when her father would go to Blockbuster to rent a video. When Oladokun was 10, he screened a DVD of Nelson Mandelaās 70th birthday celebration at Wembley Stadium, and at a point during the festivities, Tracy Chapman walked onstage and performed āFast Car,ā with just her and her guitar in front of tens of thousands of people.
āItās actually me this time, itās not a bunch of songs about ideas. Are people gonna like me?ā
To this day, the performance is arresting and gut-turning in the best ways, crackling with tension and desperation. It was the first time Oladokun remembers seeing a Black queer woman on television, and not only that, but Chapman was alone, vulnerable, and changing entire worlds with her song. āI had a feeling that I belonged / I had a feeling I could be someone,ā Chapman belts in the chorus. For many listeners, it was simply a great pop song. For Oladokun, it was liberating.
That clip was āthe gateway drugā for Oladokun, who begged her parents for a guitar that Christmas. They bought her an acoustic, and she went from a socially anxious kid who didnāt show interest in much to a committed guitar student. In small-town Arizona, guitar was one of the few things that lit Oladokunās candle. āThey couldnāt get me to do my homework to save their lives,ā she says. āBut I would sit in my room and play guitar for four or five hours every night.ā
Joy Oladokun's Gear
For her new record, Joy Oladokun took a more autobiographical approach to lyricism, crafting songs that share different intimate, personal portraits of her life.
Photo by Lauren Schorr
Effects
- Jam Pedals Wahcko
- Mesa/Boogie Grid Slammer
- JAM Pedals RetroVibe
- Chase Bliss Audio Automatone CXM 1978
- Gamechanger Audio Third Man Records Plasma Coil
Strings
- D'Addario NYXL (.009ā.046)
First up, she learned the riff to Bob Marleyās āRedemption Song,ā and stretched her fingers so she could play power chords more clearly. Her parentsā great music tastes nudged her toward Nigerian guitarists like King Sunny AdĆ©, whose music imparted deep appreciations for rhythm and syncopation alongside technical skill. Simon and Garfunkel, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, and even Genesis were played around the house, but perhaps the most significant influence came from the church, and the gospel music Oladokun heard and sang there.
āI grew up listening to a lot of music that was purpose-driven,ā she says. āEverything that I listened to and my parents listened to, they were talking about the world and revolutions and stuff.ā
āThey couldnāt get me to do my homework to save their lives. But I would sit in my room and play guitar for four or five hours every night.ā
Oladokun self-released her first EP in 2015, followed the next year by a full-length. Her 2020 followup, in defense of my own happiness (the beginnings), yielded syncs on This Is Us, Greyās Anatomy, and The L Word: Generation Q, all of which laid the groundwork for her to sign with Amigo Records and Verve Forecast Records for her 2021 breakout in defense of my own happiness. The record, which featured a co-write and appearance by pop country titan Maren Morris, expressed itself in broad, universal terms, dissecting anti-Black violence, religion, and being queer in America. Sheās said that she wrote the albumās closer, ājordan,ā the day she decided to come out herself. In December 2022, she performed the song on the lawn of the White House as part of a celebration of the signing of the Respect for Marriage Act, which requires that all states recognize same-sex marriages.
Before the performance, she had a moment where she booted everyone from her dressing room, and just looked at herself in the mirrorāa practice her therapist encouraged. āWhen I was a young Black queer kid in Arizona, I donāt know that I couldāve imagined a world where I would be invited to perform on the White House lawn to celebrate same-sex marriage. It was really emotional and powerful. I tried to embrace as much of the significance of the day as I could because I also know that things like that are a lifeline for queer people around the world.ā
Joy Oladokunās music weaves between alt-folk, indie-rock, and pop, and on her fourth full-length, she invited friends like Chris Stapleton and Manchester Orchestraās Andy Hull to fill out the sound.
Oladokun came up with the title for Proof of Life one day when she was sitting in her studio, looking at all the instruments and knickknacks lining the room. āI started morbidly thinking about what would happen to them after I die,ā she chuckles lightly.
āFor me, āproof of lifeā was like a way of saying, āWhat is singular about my existence right now, and what connects me to the rest of this planet?āā Oladokun continues. The songs on Proof of Life became vehicles to explore those threads, āand doing it in a way that 100 years from now, if someone found my album, they would have a pretty good understanding of who I was, what I had been through, and what I believed about life.ā
Oladokun says she conceptualized the bulk of the recordās 13 songs in her attic studio at home, then enlisted Mike Elizondo and Ian Fitchuk to produce some of them. But Oladokun produced a good chunk herself, renting Electric Lady Studios and inviting her friends to contribute. Across the record, guest spots from Chris Stapleton, Manchester Orchestraās Andy Hull, and Mt. Joy add extra color and dimensions. Oladokun says it was an exercise in learning to contribute and how musicians can lift one another up.
āWhen I was a young Black queer kid in Arizona, I donāt know that I couldāve imagined a world where I would be invited to perform on the White House lawn to celebrate same-sex marriage.ā
Right through to its close, Proof of Life ripples with big-picture tension and energy, but theyāre perhaps the most pronounced and direct on āWeāre All Gonna Die,ā which opens with howling violins before switching gears to a macabre, anthemic indie pop rock banger. āWeāre over our heads so Iāll say it out loud / Weāre all gonna die trying to figure it out,ā Oladokun calls on the chorus. Her pal Kahan takes the mic on the second verse: āIām pissinā in the dark and hopinā I hit the bowl / Iām afraid of what I canāt control,ā he groans.
Making the record and performing the tracks live has pulled Oladokun into a more open dynamic conversation with her guitars. Sure, she can do the tender, Chapman-style singer-songwriter routine as well as any of them. But on tour recently, she and her band have been ripping āSmells Like Teen Spiritā right after the heavy racial reckoning of āI See America.ā By the time the solo in āTeen Spiritā comes, it feels like an explosion of emotion. āItās like this expression of all the sadness and frustration that those songs represent to me,ā says Oladokun. āIām gonna get on the acoustic guitar and give you a clean version of āKeeping The Light On,ā but Iām also gonna take the solos at the end of āWeāre All Gonna Die.ā To me, [performing both styles] gets the message across in a different way than if I delegated [those parts] to someone else.ā
On Proof of Life, Oladokun isnāt a pessimist, but she is a realist. The record tells us that we can and must find joy and peace and community, but the trouble is that we have to do so knowing that not a single one of us is here forever. Itās hard work to keep your footing knowing that everything changes, and everything goes away. But if you can find something to help steady yourself, hold onto it. āOne thing that I feel really proud of that hasnāt changed,ā says Oladokun, āis that I love playing guitar more than any single thing in the entire world.āYouTube It
Joy Oladokun and her band groove through a perfectly restrained, airtight rendition of āSomebody Like Meā on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The Jim James Epiphone ES-335 features a Seventies Walnut-finish with a 5-ply laminated maple body, a Jim James Custom SlimTaper C profile, and an Indian laurel fretboard with dot inlays.
āI am beyond honored and so very grateful to have been able to collaborate with the fine folks at Epiphone on this beautiful instrumentā says Jim James. āThis is definitely a āpinch myselfā moment to be part of having a signature series guitar!"
The Alnico Classic PRO pickups are paired with CTS potentiometers and Orange Drop capacitors. Personal touches on the Epiphone Jim James ES-335 include vintage-style Kluson Waffleback tuners with metal buttons, a circle/arrow emblem on the truss rod cover, and an owl symbol on the back of the headstock; a hardshell case with an owl logo is also included.
Jim James has spent the better part of almost two decades as the lead singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist of My Morning Jacket. Through seven studio albums, My Morning Jacket has grown into one of the most acclaimed rock and roll bands in the world. In 2013, James released his debut solo record, Regions of Light and Sound of God, and 2016 saw the release of his politically charged second record, Eternally Even. James released two solo albums in 2018 ā Uniform Distortion and Uniform Clarity ā and both were received with immediate acclaim.
Although splitting his time between Los Angeles and Kentucky, James has little plan to remain in one place. James has continued expanding on his zealous lists of credits, lending his voice to albums by the likes of the Roots, David Lynch, Brandi Carlile and John Fogerty and partnering with other artists on numerous side projects such as New Multitudes, Monsters of Folk, and T-Bone Burnettās The New Basement Tapes. Known for his live performances, James has found himself in the touring company of those like Neil Young, Pearl Jam, and Bob Dylan ā even appearing in the Dylan-inspired film, Iām Not There ā and My Morning Jacket supported Roger Waters as his surprise-backing band during famed Newport Folk Festival in 2015. He has embedded himself in the world of film and television, be it through the use of his music in various projects or his long-running relationships with those in the field. James has also established himself as a producer in his own right, producing records by Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Dean Wareham, Basia Bulat, Amo Amo, and Ray Lamontagneās Ouroboros (2016), the same year in which he collaborated with NASA for the launch of their Juno Mission, and with the Sundance Film Festival and their āFreedom of Expressionā event.
Epiphone Jim James ES-335 Signature Semi-hollowbody Electric Guitar - Seventies Walnut
For more information, please visit epiphone.com.