New and old are highly relative terms. The Earth is likely not old compared to the atoms in that egg you ate this morning. But regardless of how you look at it, My Morning Jacket has news: it’s the 20th Anniversary of The Tennessee Fire and the band has reissued the album for the occasion.
I still cannot believe how people could qualify this as “alternative” country. Unless one uses “alternative” as a code for cynical, it is not country music. It is just heartfelt and honest, and if what radio stations have been paddling as country in the past decade is anything to go by, honest country would be an oxymoron.
The Tennessee Fire is a sprawling 16 track mass going in many different but mostly playfully calming directions. From a 30 second guitar solos in the 3:00 long “Evelyn Is Not Real” to the oddly retrospectively mature sound of the first track “Heartbreakin Man” to the starkly poetic “I Will Be There When You Die”, My Morning Jacket never ceases to surprise you at the variety of possible musical and melodic dimensions that you COULD find enjoyable.
The Tennessee Fire is an antithesis to the formulaic AI music catalog of the Bender persuasion. And it’s always worth a revisit, or 20. Below you can listen to a live version of “I Will Be There When You Die”. Keep a straight face and carry on.
P.S. This post is not related in theme to Paul’s Dido concert review.