11/11/2023 0 Comments My morning jacket mass moca![]() ![]() ![]() More traditional fare is on view at the venerable Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, where “Picasso: Encounters,” on view through late August, explores the Spaniard’s aesthetic dialogues with other artists through large-scale prints and paintings, many of which are rarely displayed.Īn ambitious entrant to the Berkshires cultural scene is Hancock Shaker Village, a living Shaker history museum where a new director is shaking up the traditional crafts with activities like goat yoga and a roots music concert series in a 1910 barn. In August, the noted Jewish clarinetist Paul Green, tuba virtuoso Eli Newberger and young members of the local Congregation Knesset Israel pair with gospel singers for “A Summer Celebration of Jewish Music,” a call-and-response honoring the massive installation “Until” by sculptor Nick Cave. Jewish music is the highlight of MoCA’s performance series, which draws an eager audience for concerts by acts like My Morning Jacket and the Bang-on-a-Can All Stars. It’s an ideal backdrop for large-scale, often mixed-media works by the likes of Louise Bourgeois, Jenny Holzer, Laurie Anderson and the air-and-space magician James Turrell, whose installations are featured in the museum’s newest space. It's a well-captured and spirited performance- "a most enchanting night," as Berman puts it- and a fine between-albums teaser for fans can't get quite enough of My Morning Jacket's unique brand of sonic seduction.The sheer enormity of the galleries, with their exposed-brick walls, soaring white ceilings and hardwood floors, has become an integral part of the museum’s multi-sensory experience. It's not really going out on a limb to say that this is required listening for any established My Morning Jacket fan, even if newcomers would do better to start with one of their three full-lengths (take your pick they're all fantastic). The version of "Sooner", originally from the Chocolate & Ice EP, actually bests the original in some respects, particularly in the late verses when the guitars are replaced with an ominously beeping keyboard (featured in the original, but buried under a lot of other stuff) nicely befitting the Halloween milieu in which the song was performed. The effect is interesting, the band shuffling along with an easy groove while James climbs up into the ionosphere with his vocal booster rockets. "The Bear", from the band's debut, kicks off with the classic "Be My Baby" drumbeat, but with just the natural reverb of the Startime Pavilion, it sounds very different. The two fully arranged tracks that open the set are especially revealing. To hear these songs presented on record without the pools of reverb that My Morning Jacket's albums tend to float in is intriguing they hold up very nicely. Yet, these mistakes lend the music a sense of jovial intimacy, especially when set against the powerful directness of their content. Around the two-minute mark in a run through At Dawn's unrelentingly gorgeous "Bermuda Highway", James slips for a second on his acoustic and utters a barely audible little "oop!", and soon after that, almost bursts out laughing as he sings the verse twice by mistake. There's a laidback, unrehearsed feel to most of it, particularly the three stripped-down solo tracks. Perhaps what makes the passion behind the playing and singing on this EP most remarkable, though, is the fact that it was recorded at a very casual Halloween gathering in the most excellently named town in Massachusetts, Braintree. James doesn't even need to be saying anything to shiver spines, and when he lets his falsetto rip on a wordless passage of "mmm's" and "aaah's" at the end of this version of "Golden", it's one of the absolute highlights of a pretty strong set. James is one of those people who's been blessed with a voice that you could never mistake for another- it's a clean, piercing tenor that reveals vulnerability when needed, but mostly just soars. But when he sings it over a spare arrangement of two acoustic guitars on the new live EP Acoustic Citsuoca, there's no hint of nervousness or hesitation- he just goes for it. It's hard to think of a more poignant evocation of the mix of nerves and adrenaline that precede a live performance. ![]() My Morning Jacket's Jim James sings those words on "Golden", the effervescent centerpiece of last year's excellent It Still Moves.
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