Pemberton Day 2: My Morning Jacket Call to the Mountain Spirits

Maybe it's the Kentucky in them, but My Morning Jacket slipped into the opening slot on day two of Pemberton's mainstage like they'd been hanging out among the mountains and trees for days waiting to begin. It was under a slight sprinkling of summer rain that Jim James emerged, complete with blanket poncho and a sprig of juniper, which the bearded singer held aloft shamanistically through much of the band's set. Leaning heavily on Z tracks ("Off the Record," "Gideon," "Anytime"), MMJ's noodling jams and James' soaring vocals were the perfect remedy to a night spent in the cold, dusty outdoors. Newcomers like Evil Urges' "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Part 2" were welcome additions. "I'd like to dedicate this song to all the bull moose, grizzly bear and black bear that are roaming in this hemisphere," James said, and My Morning Jacket played "Golden" for the animals.

For complete coverage of the Pemberton Festival, check out rocknrolldiary.com.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

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