Jim James
Encyclopedia
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
-based rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket is an American rock band from Louisville, Kentucky.The band consists of Jim James , Tom 'Two-Tone Tommy' Blankenship , Patrick Hallahan , Carl Broemel , and Bo Koster .-History:My Morning Jacket was...
. James grew up in the Hikes Point neighborhood of Louisville, attended St. Martha grade school and graduated from St. Xavier High School in 1996. James briefly attended the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
, studying art. Prior to forming My Morning Jacket, James was the vocalist and guitarist of Month of Sundays, currently known as Mont de Sundua. As the vocalist, frontman, producer and lead songwriter for My Morning Jacket, James has been instrumental in defining the sound of the band, in particular on their critically acclaimed Z, which he co-produced with John Leckie
John Leckie
John Leckie is a British music producer, notable for producing many high-profile albums such as The Stone Roses's debut and Radiohead's The Bends...
. He was given an "Esky" for best songwriter in Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
's 2006 Esky Music Awards in the April issue. James typically plays rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
, acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, and occasional lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
on My Morning Jacket songs. He recently played the role of the band leader in the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There
I'm Not There
I'm Not There is a 2007 biographical musical film directed by Todd Haynes, inspired by iconic American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Six actors depict different facets of Dylan's life and public persona: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw...
, singing the song "Going to Acapulco", with Calexico as his backing band, which was featured on the soundtrack of the film. Rolling Stone listed James among their "20 New Guitar Gods" along with fellow My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel
Carl Broemel
Carl Broemel is an American rock musician. He currently plays guitar, pedal steel guitar, saxophone and sings back-up vocals for the Louisville, Kentucky band My Morning Jacket.-History:...
. In 2008, James, along with former My Morning Jacket guitarist and cousin Johnny Quaid, formed Removador Recordings and Solutions record label. The label, as described on its website, functions "on the simple principal of yielding the highest annual percentage of aural joy back into the hearts and minds of investors and shareholders with ease and convenience". He contributed vocals on The Decemberists
The Decemberists
The Decemberists are an indie folk rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States, fronted by singer/songwriter Colin Meloy. The other members of the band are Chris Funk , Jenny Conlee , Nate Query , and John Moen .The band's...
' 2009 album The Hazards of Love
The Hazards of Love
The Hazards of Love, released March 24, 2009, is the fifth album by The Decemberists. The album was inspired by an Anne Briggs EP titled The Hazards of Love. According to the band, frontman Colin Meloy set out to write a song with the album's title—eventually leading to an entire album...
.
On July 7, 2009, James released an EP covering George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
songs, entitled Tribute To. A portion of the proceeds from the album will go to benefit the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. The EP is available on yimyames.com as both a digital download and a physical CD/LP.
Jim James and the rest of My Morning Jacket played themselves in an episode of American Dad!
American Dad!
American Dad! is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane and owned by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions. It is produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television...
entitled "My Morning Straitjacket".
Guitars
- Gibson Custom ES-335 (Dot Figured-top Electric Guitar with Gloss Finish Honey Burst)
- Gibson Flying V Custom Shop (brownish colored and chrome pickguard)
- 1976 Gretsch Broadkaster (Plain wood finish. Used as secondary performance guitar 1999 - 2003 tours. Also used in recording of Tennessee Fire, At Dawn, and all EPs recorded prior to 2004)
- Gretsch Super Axe (red)
- Fender Stratocaster(sunburst, black pickguard, maple neck)
- Autoharp
- Gold Tone Banjo
- Ovation Preacher 12-string Electric
- Gibson J-185 Acoustic/Electric
- Takamine acoustic
Pickups, effects and other equipment
- SIB Mr. Echo Pedal
- Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb Pedal
- Boss BD-2 Blues Driver Pedal
- Boss OC-3 Super Octave Pedal
- Boss TU-2 Chromatic Stompbox Tuner
- Hot Hand Phaser/Flanger
- Zvex Wooly Mammoth Fuzz pedal
- Zvex Vexter Box of Rock pedal
- Jim Dunlop Green Tortex Picks