Saturday night at Red Rocks, My Morning Jacket brought out a surprise guest to help sing an even more surprising cover. Nathaniel Rateliff, who just played the gorgeous and historic Colorado venue with his band the Night Sweats last week, joined Jim James and crew for loose rendition of Traffic‘s great 1968 tune “Feelin’ Alright?”
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James and Rateliff each took a verse and linked up to sing the choruses together, bringing the soulful power of the original to the stage. The cover was propelled by bouncy piano playing courtesy of MMJ’s Bo Koster. But it would be incomplete without twin guitar solos from James and Carl Broemel — luckily, the group delivered.
[RELATED: Maggie Rogers and My Morning Jacket Cover Fleetwood Mac at Newport Folk Festival 2023]
The band is no stranger to classic rock covers, and they even played “Feelin’ Alright?” earlier this year at Bonnaroo. At Newport Folk, they paired up with Maggie Rogers for a dynamic take on Fleetwood Mac’s “Say You Love Me,” a gem penned by the late Christine McVie.
My Morning Jacket nearly wrapped a summer tour that night in Colorado with support from M. Ward, followed by a co-headlining show with Fleet Foxes at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Rateliff, meanwhile, had just come through with the Night Sweats on August 22 and 23. “Night one at Red Rocks was a blast,” he wrote in an Instagram post after the first show. “Many thanks to Rocky for helping us get the crowd going.”
In addition to being a killer cover designed for maximum impact near the end of a set, “Feelin’ Alright?” became the biggest hit for iconic songwriter and performer Dave Mason. But while it wasn’t a chart success for his band Traffic, Joe Cocker took it to No. 69, then later No. 33, on the Billboard Hot 100. It became one of the bluesy English legend’s signature songs.
[RELATED: Get to Know Traffic with These 5 Essential Songs]
My Morning Jacket move onto a run of shows this fall, kicking off at Toronto’s Massey Hall on October 17. Who knows what other classic rock covers they’ll deploy?
Photo by Scott Legato/Getty Images
