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Sep 18, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Jim James

My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James is releasing The Order of Nature, a new live album recorded with The Louisville Orchestra in collaboration with conductor/arranger/composer Teddy Abrams, on October 18 via Decca Gold. Previously he shared its first track, “Set It to Song,” and now the song has a video. Silvia Grav directed the video, which features James in what seems like a church hall as he sings the song, which inspires some dancers. Watch it below

James about this to say about “Set It to Song” in a press release: “I just wanted to sing about singing and how it feels so good to sing and just have music in your life. The whole [suite] is pretty serious so I just wanted to have a beautifully lighthearted moment.”

Abrams had this to say: “I loved working on this setting, which combines a kind of French cafe style ...and several sections that are directly inspired by the great symphonist Johannes Brahms. I use a wide variety of shifting instrumental colors and percussion effects to heighten Jim’s darkness/daylight lyrics.”

The Order of Nature was performed on April 6-7, 2018 as part of the Louisville Orchestra’s annual Festival of American Music. The April 7 performance is the one that made it on the album. It was recorded in one take and features no overdubs. The album features some of James’ previous songs, as well as new songs. Abrams spent several months working on the arrangements.

James had this to say about the album in a previous press release: “The core idea to me is trying to reflect on the fact that nature doesn’t know how to hate. Humans are part of nature obviously, but why do we have this thing called hatred and how do we get rid of it? We’re fighting nature and thinking we can prevail over nature, but we’re killing each other and killing the planet.”

Abrams had this to say: “We’re really looking at addressing things head on. That was an interest of mine in working with Jim because he has a way of taking on challenging and divisive issues and presenting them in ways that everybody can relate to, even if you’re from different political backgrounds.”

James added: “For me it was very inspiring, and it was also inspiring to hear what Teddy wrote, and I really enjoyed just giving him this seed of a song and just watching it flower.”

Read our interview with Jim James on the 2018 midterm elections.

Jim James and Teddy Abrams - U.S. Dates:

2020

May:

12 - Seattle, WA - Benaroya Hall w/the Seattle Symphony
15 - Denver, CO - w/the Colorado Symphony

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