Jim James cleans up nicely. The My Morning Jacket frontman has gone highbrow with his new project, The Order of Nature, a collaboration with the Louisville Orchestra and its music director, Teddy Abrams. The project yielded an album that came out last week. Sunday evening, James and Abrams celebrated the record’s release at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City. The show was streamed live. If you missed it, we highly recommend checking out the video below. Before you settle in, you might want to grab a glass of Cabernet.

The Order of Nature stems from a friendship between James and Abrams, both of whom are entrenched in Louisville, Kentucky’s dynamic music scene. James wanted to work with Abrams to create a symphonic song cycle inspired by nature that spreads a message of peace. He explains in the album notes, “Animals kill each other, but only out of hunger, while humans daily choose to hate – we choose to ignore the order of nature and that choice is wreaking havoc.”

The project brings together a mix of old, new and borrowed songs. James wrote several brand-new songs, while others come from his previous solo projects. There are also two songs popularized Nina Simone, one written by Leonard Bernstein (“Who Am I”) and the other by Charles Reuben (“The Human Touch”). All the tracks are elevated by Abrams’s divine and lush orchestration.

The Order of Nature song cycle debuted April 6-7, 2018 as part of the Louisville Orchestra’s annual Festival of American Music. The second night’s performance was recorded and is what is found on the record that is out now via Decca Gold. James and Abrams also performed the songs in September 2019 at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) Pops.

As for the (Le) Poisson Rouge concert, it finds James and Abrams performing with back-up singers, a drummer, and a string quintet comprising members of the Louisville Orchestra. The performance is uplifting, refined and spellbinding. The orchestration illuminates James’s angelic voice.

James and Abrams, along with members of the Louisville Orchestra, are also scheduled to play “Back To The End Of The World” on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Monday, October 21. And coming up in May, James and Abrams will perform in Seattle with the Seattle Symphony (May 12, 2020) and in Denver, CO with the Colorado Symphony (May 15, 2020).

Filmmaker Liz Hart created a three-part documentary about James and Abrams’s collaboration. You can find parts I and II below. The Order of Nature is out now and is available here.

Song times
3:27 – “Walking in the Snow”
7:25 – “Here in Spirit”
11:57 – “The Human Touch”
14:29 – “In Demand”
19:33 – “Back to the End of the World”
23:21 – “Who Am I”
28:41 – “Over and Over”
32:36 – “Set It to Song”
35:59 – “Same Old Lie”

Tour Dates
MAY 2020
12 – Seattle, WA – Benaroya Hall – TICKETS
15 – Denver, CO – Boettcher Hall – TICKETS