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My Morning Jacket In Tuscaloosa

On April 27, an F4 tornado hit Tuscaloosa, Ala., leveling 7,274 homes in less time than it takes for the band My Morning Jacket to play its signature song, "Mahgeetah," in concert. Fifty-five people were killed; thousands lost their livelihoods. This university town mostly known for its football fanaticism became a place of heartbreak — and, now, of rebirth.

Last Friday — three months and three weeks after the storm — My Morning Jacket, Neko Case and Phosphorescent came to Tuscaloosa to play a special show, with all proceeds after costs going to the United Way of West Alabama. The bands transformed a tour date into a benefit after hearing of the town's devastation.

NPR's Ann Powers, who lives in Tuscaloosa during the school year, took the opportunity to connect the musicians with members of the community via a tour of the tornado zone, and brought along photographer Jeffrey B. Hanson to document the journey and the concert.

  • Jim James of My Morning Jacket pulls a silk rose from the rubble of a house destroyed by a tornado in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Aug. 19."Anytime you do an event that's associated with something else, it takes on a different place in your head than a normal event," said James during a tour of Tuscaloosa's ravaged neighborhoods. "Seeing what happened definitely makes it more emotional. You think a...
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    Jim James of My Morning Jacket pulls a silk rose from the rubble of a house destroyed by a tornado in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Aug. 19."Anytime you do an event that's associated with something else, it takes on a different place in your head than a normal event," said James during a tour of Tuscaloosa's ravaged neighborhoods. "Seeing what happened definitely makes it more emotional. You think about who in the crowd was directly affected by it, who knows somebody who died."
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • Rebecca Rothman points out a blasted field where students' apartments once stood.Our tour guides — community activists Laurie Johns and Rebecca Rothman, and University of Alabama professor Margaret Peacock — took us past key sites, including the Curry Building, where the county's emergency services had been housed; the Rosedale housing project; the once-picturesque Forest Lake neighborho...
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    Rebecca Rothman points out a blasted field where students' apartments once stood.Our tour guides — community activists Laurie Johns and Rebecca Rothman, and University of Alabama professor Margaret Peacock — took us past key sites, including the Curry Building, where the county's emergency services had been housed; the Rosedale housing project; the once-picturesque Forest Lake neighborhood; and the 100-year-old railroad bridge at Hurricane Creek. All had been wrecked by the storm. Viewing the damage from a car made the artists want to get out and walk around.
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • My Morning Jacket bassist Tom Blankenship surveys the scene.The wreckage in Tuscaloosa viscerally communicated the need this benefit concert would serve. My Morning Jacket learned about taking such a hands-on approach while working with the nonprofit activism resource group Air Traffic Control in New Orleans. "We went on a three-day retreat there that was really about activism, but focus...
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    My Morning Jacket bassist Tom Blankenship surveys the scene.The wreckage in Tuscaloosa viscerally communicated the need this benefit concert would serve. My Morning Jacket learned about taking such a hands-on approach while working with the nonprofit activism resource group Air Traffic Control in New Orleans. "We went on a three-day retreat there that was really about activism, but focused on Katrina," said James. "Sitting at this retreat with people like the Indigo Girls, who are such masters of activism and fighting for good causes, and taking a tour of the Katrina devastation, walking into these houses — it just instantly makes you realize we're all tied in."
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel (left) and Phosphorescent bandleader Matthew Houck (right) talk with Rothman on Crescent Ridge.Houck is from Huntsville, Ala., and talked about the fears he'd felt right after the storms, which affected the whole state. It took him several days to locate his family members by phone and make sure they were OK. All three acts have members who've liv...
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    My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel (left) and Phosphorescent bandleader Matthew Houck (right) talk with Rothman on Crescent Ridge.Houck is from Huntsville, Ala., and talked about the fears he'd felt right after the storms, which affected the whole state. It took him several days to locate his family members by phone and make sure they were OK. All three acts have members who've lived in tornado zones: My Morning Jacket is based in Louisville, Ky., and Case was born in Virginia. No one, however, had previously seen damage this severe.
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • My Morning Jacket drummer Patrick Hallahan stands at the highest point of the storm's path through Tuscaloosa. This view did not exist before the storm, which felled more than 5,000 trees in Tuscaloosa County.We passed by three elementary schools rendered unusable, whose students have been relocated. That sight particularly affected Hallahan. "My wife has been a teacher for years," he sa...
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    My Morning Jacket drummer Patrick Hallahan stands at the highest point of the storm's path through Tuscaloosa. This view did not exist before the storm, which felled more than 5,000 trees in Tuscaloosa County.We passed by three elementary schools rendered unusable, whose students have been relocated. That sight particularly affected Hallahan. "My wife has been a teacher for years," he said. "I get a lump in my stomach thinking about having to take on that onslaught of a student body. Teachers are dealing with so much already."
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • Neko Case contemplates a tree that has become home to a car fender, now a landmark in town."The randomness of the destruction ... you almost can't look at it through any context. It's not like there was just one bad guy and his house got crushed and it all makes sense. My brain wants to ask why." – Jim James
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    Neko Case contemplates a tree that has become home to a car fender, now a landmark in town."The randomness of the destruction ... you almost can't look at it through any context. It's not like there was just one bad guy and his house got crushed and it all makes sense. My brain wants to ask why." – Jim James
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox greets James and the other artists backstage at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater before the show.After the storm, Maddox enlisted a large task force of citizens to come up with an approach to rebuilding. Music is part of his plan, along with green building practices, pedestrian walkways and more open space. "Three years ago, the city decided to build this amphithe...
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    Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox greets James and the other artists backstage at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater before the show.After the storm, Maddox enlisted a large task force of citizens to come up with an approach to rebuilding. Music is part of his plan, along with green building practices, pedestrian walkways and more open space. "Three years ago, the city decided to build this amphitheater," Maddox told the artists during an afternoon meet-and-greet session. "And it's been very successful. But since April 27, it's also given our residents a chance to have a few hours' escape from the day-to-day reality of their lives."
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • James hands a donation check to Homer Butler of the United Way of West Alabama."Once I started paying the rent and keeping the electricity on [by] playing music, I was like, this is amazing," James said later about his commitment to charity work. "Everything that happens to us, I'm just constantly – I'm just grateful I don't have to work in a coffee shop. I'm not ever claiming to be a ro...
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    James hands a donation check to Homer Butler of the United Way of West Alabama."Once I started paying the rent and keeping the electricity on [by] playing music, I was like, this is amazing," James said later about his commitment to charity work. "Everything that happens to us, I'm just constantly – I'm just grateful I don't have to work in a coffee shop. I'm not ever claiming to be a role model or anything, because I've got my problems and my issues. But we're just trying to turn people on to things we care about."
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • Matthew Houck and Phosphorescent open the show at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater. It was a humid, uncomfortable night, but the crowd at the show was attentive and engaged from the opening act on. "After the tornado happened, everyone went through a phase, past the grief, of feeling guilty about being alive," amphitheater director Wendy Riggs said. "We've been able to bring the city here and...
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    Matthew Houck and Phosphorescent open the show at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater. It was a humid, uncomfortable night, but the crowd at the show was attentive and engaged from the opening act on. "After the tornado happened, everyone went through a phase, past the grief, of feeling guilty about being alive," amphitheater director Wendy Riggs said. "We've been able to bring the city here and say, 'It's OK to celebrate that we're alive and we're going to rebuild. It's all right to have survived. It's all right, and we can keep moving on and do it positively.' "
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • Neko Case performs. Case has a song called "This Tornado Loves You" that imagines a gale force wind as a lover determined to completely own the object of her affection. While surveying the tornado damage, Case said she had felt nervous about performing the song in Tuscaloosa; she chose to do so. One local fan, Joshua Folmar, later tweeted that hearing the song was therapeutic: "I'm glad ...
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    Neko Case performs. Case has a song called "This Tornado Loves You" that imagines a gale force wind as a lover determined to completely own the object of her affection. While surveying the tornado damage, Case said she had felt nervous about performing the song in Tuscaloosa; she chose to do so. One local fan, Joshua Folmar, later tweeted that hearing the song was therapeutic: "I'm glad she played it."
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • My Morning Jacket performs.
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    My Morning Jacket performs.
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • My Morning Jacket performs.
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    My Morning Jacket performs.
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • My Morning Jacket keyboardist Bo Koster.My Morning Jacket routinely donates a dollar from every ticket sold on tour to a local charity, and has those beneficiaries distribute information at its concerts. Margaret Peacock asked the band how they'd made the connection between playing music and becoming active in social causes. She later recalled what Koster said: "We get a tremendous amoun...
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    My Morning Jacket keyboardist Bo Koster.My Morning Jacket routinely donates a dollar from every ticket sold on tour to a local charity, and has those beneficiaries distribute information at its concerts. Margaret Peacock asked the band how they'd made the connection between playing music and becoming active in social causes. She later recalled what Koster said: "We get a tremendous amount of attention all the time. I think at some point we just realized that we have an obligation not just to play music, but to look outside ourselves and be... human."
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • My Morning Jacket performs.
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    My Morning Jacket performs.
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • My Morning Jacket performs.
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    My Morning Jacket performs.
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR
  • James throws a silk rose he picked up in the tornado zone to the crowd.While exploring the devastation, James found an artificial white rose lying on the ground. He wondered aloud if it would be appropriate to take it. Peacock later remembered: "There we were, amidst this rubble that was slated for a landfill, and he was asking if it was all right to take this dirty rose. He seemed to un...
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    James throws a silk rose he picked up in the tornado zone to the crowd.While exploring the devastation, James found an artificial white rose lying on the ground. He wondered aloud if it would be appropriate to take it. Peacock later remembered: "There we were, amidst this rubble that was slated for a landfill, and he was asking if it was all right to take this dirty rose. He seemed to understand how that rubble, that garbage, represented the material culmination of a life." At the end of My Morning Jacket's show, James gave the rose back to Tuscaloosa.
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    Jeffrey B. Hanson for NPR

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