It was below freezing when the Roseland Theater opened its doors at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night. Although few fans dared to brave the cold to wait in line, the venue slowly filled by the time headliner Jim James took the stage at 9:15.
James is best known as the lead singer and bearded guitarist of My Morning Jacket. He is also a member of Monsters Of Folk and recently worked on The New Basement Tapes, a collection of Bob Dylan songs recorded with Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens and Marcus Mumford, among others. James is touring in support of his new album, Eternally Even, which was released on Nov. 4.
Twin Limb, a three-piece consisting of organ, guitar and drums from Louisville, Kentucky, opened the show to a crowd that filled about a quarter of the venue. Their “dream pop” sound was drowned out by an unbalanced mix that placed Kevin Ratterman’s guitar front and center, relegating Lacey Guthrie’s vocals and accordion to the background.
Twin Limb and an additional drummer and bassist would join James as his backing band. The set began with “Hide In Plain Sight,” the dreamy opening song from Eternally Even. With the sound properly balanced, James, dressed in a green jacket and brown pants, began with his back to the crowd. He squeezed his eyes shut behind a pair of sunglasses until he began singing.
In recent years, James has suffered back injuries that have prevented him from fulfilling his usual stage presence. Once he began singing, he walked the length of the stage, clearly a little more stiff than normal; but a bad back wasn’t enough to prevent James from being an engaging frontman. He made eye contact with every audience member and would occasionally reach out to touch index fingers with the crowd.
(Craig Wright/Emerald)
James played all solo songs, with no My Morning Jacket or Monsters Of Folk songs. Every track from Eternally Even was represented, and about half of Regions Of Light And Sound Of God made it into the show.
James has one of the greatest voices in music. He can scream. He can drill an inhuman falsetto. He can silence a room with a peaceful wail and a shake of his golden locks, which is exactly what he did during the encore.
During a solo acoustic version of “Changing World,” a song he worked on for the Woody Guthrie tribute album New Multitudes, James sang delicate, extended notes. He slowly shook his head side-to-side, creating a spine-tingling vibrato that obliterated all conversation in the venue. It was such a simple sound, but it provided a few seconds of unexpected transcendence that few performers are capable of leading an audience to.
With tears beginning to form in her eyes, one woman in the crowd simply said, “That was so beautiful” as the song concluded. No one said anything back to her; no words were needed.
The final song of the night was “State Of The Art (A.E.I.O.U)” from Regions Of Light And Sound Of God in which James questions the relationship between humans and the ease and accessibility of technology: “I use my state of the art technology/supposed to make for better living/but are we better human beings?”
Midsong, everything except the drums stopped playing. Here, James sang what appeared to be a new song with handwritten lyrics over the solitary drumbeat. He asked people to care for each other, love one another and stop unnecessary fighting.
As a performer, James radiates a sense of love. As he exited the stage, he held up peace signs to the crowd and proceeded to form his hands into the shape of a heart. Fittingly, John Lennon’s “Give Peace A Chance” played over the loudspeakers as the crowd exited back into the unforgiving cold, far from the comfort of James’ voice.
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