Track Listing

1. Heartbreakin Man
2. They Ran
3. The Bear
4. Nashville To Kentucky
5. Old Sept Blues
6. If All Else Fails
7. It�s About Twilight Now
8. Evelyn Is Not Real
9. War Begun
10. Picture of You
11. I Will Be There When You Die
12. The Dark
13. By My Car
14. Butch Cassidy
15. I Think I�m Going to Hell

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29966 in Music
• Released on: 2006-07-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Recorded on a four-track in an outhouse at the rural Kentucky home of My Morning Jacket singer Jim James, The Tennesse Fire has all the hallmarks of an alt.country classic: there are tenderly strummed guitars, plaintive vocals and the sound of someone walking around and closing a door as a song is coming to an end. But while alt.country rapidly becomes a haven for under-achieving self-obsessives, My Morning Jacket bring melody, confidence and a spectacular songwriting talent to the genre.

The obvious reference point is Neil Young, although the invention of the Palace Brothers is also a touchstone. Jim James shares Young's vocal fragility, expressing regret and affection in a single breath, often sounding like his voice is about to shatter completely. The songs, meanwhile, are astonishing, taking the understated template of alt.country and adding haunted harmonies and a melodic richness that's close to that of the Beach Boys. Highlights are plentiful, but the jangled pop of "Evelyn Is Not Real", the lament of "The Bear" and the delicate musings of "I Will Be There When You Die" are heartstopping. As a primer to what could be well be alt.country's finest talent, this debut is beyond precious. --Ian Watson

Customer Reviews

Kentucky Fried Magic
Along with "At Dawn", "The Tennessee Fire" was the second of two My Morning Jacket albums released in 2002 on the Darla label. Now they're both out here in the UK on Witchita, and although this one is not altogether unlike "At Dawn", different it certainly is.

The obvious Neil Young/Lynard Skynard reference points remain, and Jim James' vocals are as heartfelt and splintered as always. This time, though, some of their more leftfield influences come out to the fore. Now, you can just about imagine Nina Simone and Etta James blaring out across the farm where My Morning Jacket used to rehearse.

Pleasingly lo-fi, sounding altogether rougher, rustic and a lot more country than their other album, this is a record stripped in every way imaginable of unnecessary polish. The result is the raw sound of an extremely accomplished, creative band and the untainted interpretations of some quite extraordinary songs. “I Will Be There When You Die” is a melancholic but deceptively bleak acoustic number with a dark twist of humour; “The Dark” almost twinkles its way through the Kentucky night sky before morphing into a peculiar, pastoral amalgam of Talking Heads and the Kinks; and at the risk of making a lazy comparison, “Heartbreakin’ Man”, to my mind, conjured up images of the Beatles with Robert Johnson instead of Paul McCartney.

We’d better be clear: this is not recommended for anyone for whom being tarred and feathered on Tooting Bec Common is infinitely preferable to listening to sixty minutes worth of country songs. However for the rest of us, we have an ideal album with which to kick back, relax and enjoy some prime-cut, dextrous, almost ethereal music.

Not country, something far better
Don't be put off by anyone who says this is a country album. It's not, it defies classification and no musical taxonomy other than "americana" fits. The lead singer and songwriter, Jim James, has a voice which reminds the listener of both Neil Young and Wayne Coyne and it perfectly fits the accompaniment given by the rest of the band. The music evokes rural America, without being in any significant way countryish. Haunting and beautiful are two words I would use to describe this album. The standout track is "I will be with you until you die" but not by much.

Buy anything by this great band except this
I love MMJ. Don't get me wrong. I'd recommend any of their albums to anybody:just not this one! No tunes you see, they put them all on At Dawn which came out at the same time over here and mercifully I bought first. For completists only.