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Feb 11, 2025 By Mark Redfern Photography by Sylvia Grav

My Morning Jacket are releasing a new album, is, on March 21 via ATO. Now they have released its second single, “Squid Ink,” via a music video. Watch it below, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates.

The song started out as a basement jam between vocalist/guitarist Jim James and drummer Patrick Hallahan.

“The idea behind ‘Squid Ink’ is that certain people carry a negativity that fills the room like a squid shooting ink into the water,” says James in a press release. “It’s about trying to get out of those murky waters by believing in yourself, and when Patrick and I were jamming I got the idea to sing part of the chorus really low — almost like putting a beard on the face of the vocal.”

Previously My Morning Jacket shared the album’s first single, “Time Wasted,” via a music video.

The band features singer/guitarist Jim James, bassist Tom Blankenship, guitarist Carl Broemel, drummer Patrick Hallahan, and keyboardist Bo Koster.

Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam) produced the album, which is their 10th, and this is the first time James hasn’t produced one of the band’s albums himself.

“Up until now I’ve never been able to let go and allow someone else to steer the ship,” James explains. “It almost felt like an out-of-body experience to step back and give control over to someone who’s far more accomplished and made so many more records than us, but in the end I was able to enjoy the process maybe more than I ever have before.”

As for the short album title, is, James says: “I like how the word ‘is’ indicates a sense of presence in the now—there’s no logic or rationale behind this record; it just is. All these songs came into existence out of an attempt to connect with something beyond the human experiment, which for me is one of the most beautiful things about music—that connection with something larger than us, yet something we are all equally a part of.”

It’s been 26 years since the release of My Morning Jacket’s debut album, 1999’s The Tennessee Fire. “One of the cool things about being around this long is that we’re not afraid to scrap something if we don’t absolutely love it,” James says. “It feels really great to have a collection of songs we all love this much, and to know that we worked as hard as we possibly could on them. Hopefully those songs will be helpful to people and give them some kind of peace as they try to deal with the insanity of the world—because that’s what music does for me, and doing the same for others is always my greatest dream come true.”

In September My Morning Jacket shared a new song, “Aren’t We One,” and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the November presidential election. The song is not included on the new album.

My Morning Jacket’s last studio album was 2021’s My Morning Jacket.

Read our interview with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James on the 2018 Midterm Elections.

My Morning Jacket Tour Dates:

April:

1 – Chattanooga, TN – Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Auditorium w/Bendigo Fletcher
3-5 – Miramar Beach, FL – My Morning Jacket’s One Big Holiday *
8 – Birmingham, AL – Alabama Theatre **
10 – Austin, TX – Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park **
12 – Dallas, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory **
13 – Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall **
15 – Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP **
17 – Athens, OH – Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium **
18 – Milwaukee, WI – The Riverside Theater **
20 – Minneapolis, MN – The Armory **
21 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater **
25 – Louisville, KY – The Louisville Palace w/Lacey Guthrie
26 – Louisville, KY – The Louisville Palace w/Future Killer
27 – Louisville, KY – The Louisville Palace w/The Jesse Lees

May:

2 – St. Louis, MO – The Factory at The District w/Bendigo Fletcher
4 – New Orleans, LA – New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival *

* Festival Appearance
** w/Grace Cummings

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