Saturday night we found ourselves with the necessary flu to safely justify a classic couch-flop, remote-control-driven, DVR extravaganza.  And so we went straight to VH1’s recent Storytellers episode featuring My Morning Jacket.  Simply put this is amongst a handful of the best musical performances ever captured on television.  Jim James (reluctantly) provides the narrative backdrop to the songs and comes off as an intelligent and gifted soul (especially touching is when he briefly loses it while introducing Dondante).  And of course his vocals scintillate throughout.

But what really captivates during the episode (and what had been somewhat lost in the sound-mix at their recent Santa Barbara Bowl show) is the mesmerizing, multi-instrumental playing of Carl Broemel. Broemel is that rare musical breed who is poly-proficient and yet plays sparely and soul-piercingly.   Check out Carl’s pedal steel playing on Golden below (the music begins at 3:45), and on Moving Away and Wonderful (elsewhere at Storytellers), his lead guitar thr0ughout (but in particular on Dondante and One Big Holiday), and his sax playing on Dondante. And the other members also provide perfect support.  Flu or not, the episode is highly recommended.  By the end of the viewing we were virtually healed.