''At Dawn'' is the second studio album by American rock band
My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket is an American rock band formed in Louisville, Kentucky in 1998. The band consists of vocalist/guitarist Jim James, bassist Tom Blankenship, drummer Patrick Hallahan, guitarist Carl Broemel, and keyboardist Bo Koster. The ba ...
. Produced by group frontman
Jim James
James Edward Olliges Jr. (born April 27, 1978), professionally known as Jim James or Yim Yames, is an American vocalist, guitarist, producer, and primary songwriter of the rock band My Morning Jacket. He has also released several solo albums.
...
, the album was released on April 6, 2001 by
Darla Records
Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi band from Memphis.
Background
The music of the artists on the ...
. The Kentucky-based group had begun several years prior when James needed an outlet for folky, acoustic songs. Its first album for independent label Darla, 1999's ''The Tennessee Fire'', attracted a devoted following in the Netherlands, prompting the young band to tour heavily.
''At Dawn'' is a turning point for the band in its steps toward more ambitious song lengths and eclecticism in other genres. Like its predecessor, the group recorded the album at James' extended family's soybean farm in rural Kentucky. He recorded his vocals in an abandoned grain silo to take advantage of its natural reverb.
Background
My Morning Jacket was started by singer-songwriter Jim James in Louisville, Kentucky in 1998. James created the project as an
acoustic outlet for songs he felt were unsuitable for his main band, Month of Sundays.
He recruited his cousin Johnny Quaid on guitar, Tom Blankenship on bass, and J. Glenn on drums, and the quartet signed to independent label
Darla Records
Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi band from Memphis.
Background
The music of the artists on the ...
. Their debut album, ''
The Tennessee Fire
''The Tennessee Fire'' is the debut album by the rock band My Morning Jacket. It introduced the reverb-heavy sound that is characteristic of the band's early material. This is most apparent in Jim James' vocals, many of which were recorded in an ...
'' (1999), attracted a devoted following in the Netherlands, prompting the band to secure management and tour heavily.
![Flickr - Nicholas T - Snowmelt](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Flickr_-_Nicholas_T_-_Snowmelt.jpg)
Like its predecessor, ''At Dawn'' was recorded at Quaid's rural
family farm
A family farm is generally understood to be a farm owned and/or operated by a family; it is sometimes considered to be an Estate (land), estate passed down by inheritance.
Although a recurring conceptual model, conceptual and archetype, archet ...
in
Shelbyville, Kentucky
Shelbyville is a list of Kentucky cities, home rule-class city in and the county seat of Shelby County, Kentucky, Shelby County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 14,045 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census.
History
Early hist ...
, a city outside Louisville. The group converted an apartment above a three-car garage at the property into a
home studio Home recording is the practice of recording sound in a private home instead of a professional recording studio. A studio set up for home recording is called a home studio or project studio. Home recording is widely practiced by voice actors, narrat ...
, which they called Above the
Cadillac
The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...
.
James recorded his vocals in an abandoned grain silo, utilizing its natural
reverb
Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...
.
He professed a love for atmospheric, "huge open sounds, such as vocals cut far away from the mic in a big room," specifically pointing to
the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
' ''
Exile on Main Street
''Exile on Main St.'' is the 10th British and 12th American studio album by the English rock music, rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 12 May 1972 by Rolling Stones Records. Recording began in 1969 in England during sessions for ''Sticky ...
'', or
John Bonham
John Henry Bonham (31 May 1948 – 25 September 1980) was an English musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band Led Zeppelin. Esteemed for his speed, power, fast single-footed kick drumming, distinctive sound, and feel for groove,J ...
's drum work on
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
albums.
James noted the group committed themselves to recording: "we locked ourselves in for many days with all the necessary elements–lights, candles,
Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
’s ''
Immaculate Collection'',
Dreamcast
The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...
and cookies."
Years later, he looked back fondly at the process, highlighting his youth and inexperience: "We were just so green and just such infants, we didn't really know anything about professional recording or anything like that, but we recorded it all ourselves and recorded it all to tape and just had a really amazing time out there," he said.
It was the first time the quartet made an album with the foresight that, due to their burgeoning overseas fanbase, people would be listening.
After recording, James co-mixed the album with David Trumfio at Kingsize Sound Labs.
''At Dawn'' has been described as a "loose, sprawling collection of folk-rock songs that hearken back to the glory days of
classic rock
Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...
."
The ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' John Cook characterized that the use of reverb "lends it the character of a distant transmission, a dispatch from a different time."
James clarified the band's mission in a 2001 interview: "We’re just trying to bring rock ’n’ roll back to the table, plain and simple
..pure rock ’n’ roll with a heart that beats for the common man."
James wrote "The Way That He Sings" about his favorite vocalists, specifically
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as ...
and
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
, and their intonation and voice.
Release
''At Dawn'' was first issued on
compact disc
The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...
in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
and the Netherlands on March 30, 2001 through Darla Records. The label made it available for
mail order
Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as:
* Sending an order form in the mail
* Placing a telephone call
* Placing a ...
on April 5 in the U.S. and elsewhere, with a general retail release occurring on April 17. The first 2500 copies on CD included a bonus disc of
demos
Demos may refer to:
Computing
* DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system
* DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR
* Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems
* plural for Demo (computer programming)
...
that James recorded in his bedroom,
which was also included with the album's original vinyl release, which followed on April 28, 2001. Darla made "The Way That He Sings" available on its website as a preview for the upcoming album.
The album bolstered the band's fanbase in their home country, earning praise from
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters are an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Foo Fighters was initially formed as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Following the success of the eponymous debut album, Grohl (lead vocals, guitar) re ...
frontman
Dave Grohl
David Eric Grohl (born January 14, 1969) is an American musician. He is the founder of the rock band Foo Fighters, in which he is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter. Prior to forming Foo Fighters, he was the drummer of gru ...
,
with whom the group later toured, as well as English band
Doves
Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...
.
Track listing
* Track 4 is listed as "Death Is the Easy Way" in the liner notes.
* Track 12 is listed as "Phone Went Dead" in the liner notes.
* Track 14 is not shown in the album's track listing, but is credited as such in the "For the Record" section of the liner notes. It is often listed as "Hidden Song #1", "Untitled Bonus Track", "Mediate, Try Not To Hate... Love Yer Mate, Like Sex On 8...", or "Bonus Track."
Personnel
*Jim James – vocals, guitars, harmonica, banjo
*Johnny Quaid – guitar
*Two Tone Tommy – bass guitar
*J. Glenn – drums
*Keenan Lawler– Resonator guitar
*Danny Cash – keyboards
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
My Morning Jacket albums
2001 albums
Albums produced by Jim James
Darla Records albums
Albums recorded in a home studio