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Early James recorded his first two Easy Eye Sound albums, Singing For My Supper (2020) and Strange Time To Be Alive (2022), at the studio inside the vaunted label’s Nashville headquarters. But for James’ third release, Medium Raw, producer and Easy Eye Sound label head Dan Auerbach envisioned something quite different for the Alabama-bred singer-songwriter-guitarist’s rawboned, sometimes scarifying music.

“Day of the first session, I had my GPS routed to Easy Eye,” James recalls. “We ran into some traffic, and I texted [engineer M.] Allen [Parker]—‘Hey man, sorry, we’re gonna be about 15 minutes late.’ And he said, ‘It’s OK, we’re still getting set up at the house.’ And I was like, ‘What house?’ ‘We’re recording at this house, it’s really cool.’ It was news to me! It felt unusual in the moment, which I think makes you play the songs differently. But I’m really happy with and proud of the results.”

“I wanted to try to find that power of when I first saw him, when it was just him and his guitar,” Auerbach explains. “After working with him a couple of times in the studio, I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to do it in the same kind of way. The comforts and luxuries of the studio, where you’re able to hear everything and make adjustments and changes, wasn’t right for this project.”

“Some of my favorite albums are those Arhoolie records produced by Chris Strachwitz that were recorded in houses, by Fred McDowell, Lightnin’ Hopkins. I felt like we might get better results if we did it in a house.”

The house in question, known as “Honky Chateau,” was an old Nashville property owned by photographer and artist Buddy Jackson.

“It’s a house with a lot of character,” Auerbach says. “I’ve always loved it. I always felt inspired when I was there. I knew it would be a fun place to do something. It’s over 100 years old. It’s got the old plaster on the walls, plaster ceilings, old wallpaper. There are big oak floors and an oak stairwell. The first floor has 12-and-a-half-foot ceilings. It’s pretty awesome. But it’s not a recording studio by any means.”

James notes that pretty much everything you hear on Medium Raw was, as its title suggests, cut au naturel.

The writing continues to display the hallmarks of James’ distinctive, one-of-a-kind style: whip-smart wordplay, upended clichés, humor both light and dark, and a deep intelligence that frequently reflects a literary sensibility.

The self-deprecating musician says, “I’m really good about picking up books and getting what I need from ’em. I’m really bad about picking up something and getting what I need and putting them back down again. I am a huge Cormac McCarthy fan. Some of his books are very hard to read, just because of the way they make you feel. I’m working on Blood Meridian now for the third time.”

His musical sensibility has leaned toward the hard stuff from an early age: “I remember getting obsessed with the blues and getting obsessed with old country. My first favorite musician was Hank Williams. There was something about how dark that music was. I could listen to Hank Williams on repeat and never get tired of it. Hank Williams, Jr., lives in my hometown of Troy, Alabama, and he and my dad were hunting buddies. They still run into each other at Julia’s Restaurant in Troy. I listened to a lot of Howlin’ Wolf, and his guitarist Hubert Sumlin—I thought that was Howlin’ Wolf playing the guitar.”

With Medium Raw now ready to be served, James is embarking on touring (backed by Marmolejo and drummer Joey Rudisell) that will take him through the U.S. and return him to Europe, where he has developed an enthusiastic fan base, for dates in the Netherlands, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, and Denmark.

Like the rambling bluesmen of old, whose repertoires would mutate from night to night, James says audiences should expect him to work some new wrinkles into his songs on stage: “I’m trying to play dress-up with this record on the road. You never know what it’s going to be wearing. It depends on what thrift store we get to.”

For all Millennium Stage performances, a limited number of advance reservations are available on a first come, first served basis. Advance reservations do not guarantee a seat, and patrons are encouraged to arrive early.

Online advance reservations for a given performance date will open on a rolling basis, opening every Wednesday two weeks out from the date.

For live Millennium Stage performances free tickets will also be available at the Hall of States Box Office on the day of the performance, beginning at 4:30 p.m.

Seating is first come, first served. Standing room is available behind the seated area as space allows.