Jim James has always had a habit of following ideas wherever they lead—even long-ditched ideas. As the frontman and primary songwriter for My Morning Jacket, a prolific solo artist, producer and serial collaborator, he’s moved freely between rock, prog, soul, psychedelia, folk and electronic experimentation. There have been other detours over the years; and at least in part, Wowed Out (ATO) is James’ effort to make good on a rejected film score from more than a decade ago.
James could never really shake those sessions in the early 2010s with drummer, percussionist and composer Brian Reitzell. Built largely around James’ keyboards and Reitzell’s percussion, the pieces periodically resurfaced over the years without a hint of their origin. That changed while James was working on “Lost Child,” an outlier that had nothing to do with the score. Something about the song sent him back to the abandoned material.
James elaborated on his rescue effort with MAGNET’s Hobart Rowland.
What finally clicked in 2025 that allowed you to hear the music from your abandoned film score as album-worthy?
I’m not sure—just the flow of the universe. I wrote these musical themes that we were really proud of. I was usually on organ or Wurly, and Brian is an amazing drummer/percussionist. We created some super-cool score pieces, and then we got fired from the movie. I’d come back to it from time to time because I loved it so much, but nothing ever expanded from it until last year. I got a hit from the universe to re-explore the score sessions because they felt tied to “Lost Child” somehow … so I did, and it all just exploded into life.
How did working mostly within an archival format allow you to approach production differently than if you’d begun with a more conventional batch of new songs?
Well, it was a beautiful play on infinite life, because music is eternal. Music is spirit—there’s no timestamp or demand on when or how it’s used. I look at it as a farmer going through life gathering seeds. Some seeds you plant and they take root immediately. Others you plant and they never grow. Still others may sit in the storehouse for years until you decide to try them out. I love collecting music, whether it’s sampling other folks’ music like I did with the classic Maxine Brown song on “Lost Child” or working on some of my own older tracks or ideas I’ve collected and recorded through the years. Usually, most of my records have at least a few ideas on them that were born long ago. But then spirit says, “Why not explore this idea again now?”
You describe tenderness as a form of resistance on this LP. At a time when anger and outrage can seem like the only logical responses in this crazy world, why does tenderness feel like a radical alternative?
Tenderness is something we can all do, especially when we give that tenderness to ourselves. It’s a gift no one can take away from us no matter what happens. I believe we all need to find ways to turn toward ourselves with love, forgiveness and gratitude for the experience of getting to be human and realize we aren’t the human we think we are. We’re something much larger, and we’re here to be a good caretaker for a while. In that realization, we need to learn how to treat our own human like we treat other humans or beings we love. We can truly realize that we’re beautiful just as we are. In that self-love, we can become better caretakers for other beings—and the world and universe itself.
Wowed Out makes a convincing argument for “awakened attention”—as in, putting down the phone and noticing what’s going on around us. How has making this album served as your own personal wake-up call?
Well, it’s an ongoing process, right? I’ll be working on it until the day I die and beyond, and it comes in waves. I think the more time I can sit with reality in a natural way—just sit or walk in nature and realize that we’re all a part of it and not separate from it—and the more we can be in tune with what’s happening around us, the more peace we can find. I do also believe that technology has a place there, as well—and that we can find harmony in that, too. We’ve just gone too far in the wrong direction. Think about it: We could easily have phones and cars powered by the sun, wind or other various means, run by people who desire enlightenment. But these ideas and ways have been killed because of greed. I believe we find a way past that greed when we all take the time to sit down and seriously explore and come to grips with the things that haunt us, learn to look at those things instead of running from them and transmute them into real peaceful power.
What still has the ability to genuinely wow you?
Every single day, I’m wowed by the kindness of friends and family, the kindness of random strangers I meet or random acts of kindness or giving I hear about going on out among the chaos in the world. I’m wowed by the sounds of the birds in the trees and the rivers and winds blowing through this beautiful world, as well as the sounds made by so many wondrous beings right now and all throughout the past that will echo on forever. My soul is overflowing with gratitude for being allowed to take this form for a little while and experience all the beauty and love on the earth at this moment.
See Jim James live.