My Morning Jacket Are Back On Track

My Morning Jacket's hometown of Louisville, Ky. likes to do things big. The city is home to massive events such as the Kentucky Derby, the largest annual fireworks display in the U.S., the fifth largest hot air balloon festival south of our border and even The Lebowski Fest for fans of The Big Lebowski.

But don't let these big festivals fool you. They're not an indicator of how MMJ like to do things. They just like to do things right.

"Maybe these big things have an effect unconsciously on our music, but I think if there's any effect of the region where you live, it's unconscious," says guitarist Carl Broemel of the band's sprawling sound. "It's not like, 'Hey, I live in Louisville, we do things big here, let's play big.' I think it's just a result of the evolution of the band. Through all the people that played in the band, how all the songs are coming together."

Broemel, who lives in Nashville, quickly went from the guy who was just filling in (when members Johnny Quaid and Danny Cash left MMJ in 2004) to the guy who simply fit, to playing on last year's Z, and now touring. The band are back on the road after taking a break while singer/songwriter Jim James recuperated from a serious bout with pneumonia.

"When Jim got sick, it was out of our hands," Broemel says. "It's just one of those things where you can't really cry over it.

"We were just all concerned that he was feeling sick and run down, and I think we were worried, not necessarily about what's happening in the months that we were off, but more, what's going to happen in the next five years.

"If someone needs to stop and heal or go get married or do whatever they do to keep their life together aside from the band, then that's first priority. So we had to cancel some things and that was pretty hard, but really not hard at the same time."

Now that James has fully recovered, MMJ have hit the road with Pearl Jam, at the Seattle band's request, for the first leg of their North American tour. The group recently released a B-sides and demos collection and will soon put out a live CD/DVD of a concert recorded at The Fillmore in San Francisco last November.

"It has it's own life," says Broemel of the group. "People come and go, and that's OK. The band will do what it needs to do to get from here to there."