True, lap-steel and harmonica brought out the twang in these songs, which found Jim James singing about Butch Cassidy, bear attacks, and southern road trips. But MMJ still sounded like a regular old indie-rock band – especially with the reverb-soaked production and sore-throat harmonies. 

 It wasn’t until 2001’s At Dawn that their jones for classic rock began in earnest: “Honest Man” and “Death Is My Sleazy Play” recalled Stevie Ray Vaughn and Neil Young, respectively. But James’ chillingly high-lonesome falsetto also became a touchstone in its own right.  

 Dave Matthews soon signed MMJ to his ATO Records, and the group’s release for the label, It Still Moves, was a bid to make a true “band album” – with the players acting as a full-fledged Crazy Horse to James’ Neil Young.  

 MMJ’s biggest creative leap came with 2005’s Z, widely believed to be the album that transformed the band from hillbilly hipsters into the hippie Radiohead. It was an epic, shambolic album that reinvented their varied influences as grandly-waving freak flags.  

 James channeled his inner weirdo on 2006’s double-disc Okonokos. Mixing Pink Floyd other-worldliness and jam-band populism, James played the goofball, venturing into spacey ambience, and howling his furry head off.  

 This deeply ambitious album began with a few curveballs, including Prince-like vocal gasps, robotic swamp-funk, and nonsense outbursts like “peanut butter pudding surprise!” What turned this genre-hopscotch into a fully-realized work was James’ ability to make golden oldies seem modern.