Watch: My Morning Jacket and Grace Cummings Cover Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
Photo Credit: Rich Fury / MSG Entertainment
Last night, April 17, My Morning Jacket took the stage at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium in Athens, Ohio for the latest performance in the band’s expansive is Tour. After participating in Ohio University’s Music Industry Summit–keyboardist Bo Koster is an alumnus–the band took to the school’s stadium for a thrilling 23-track performance spanning their career, with a rare Bob Dylan cover in the encore.
My Morning Jacket set off their performance with the fitting selection of “Beginning from the Ending,” a warm and wise standout from the band’s recently released 10th studio album is. In the course of the evening, the quintet performed a total of only four other songs from that fresh project, scattering treatments of “Squid Ink,” “Die for It,” “Time Waited” and “Everyday Magic” across a setlist that favored their back catalog more than preceding outings on their current tour. Among the longtime favorites they brought to the Buckeye State were both sections of “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream,” “Circuital,” “One Big Holiday,” “Smokin’ From Shootin’,” “It Beats 4 U,” “Never in the Real World” and a set-closer of 2003’s It Still Moves selection “Dancefloors.”
When the band returned to the auditorium for an encore, they were accompanied by Australian folk and roots-rock singer-songwriter Grace Cummings, who has regularly collaborated with the band for surprise inclusions while opening for the first leg of their tour. After lending her vocal talents to such live highlights as MMJ’s April 12 covers of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” and AC/DC’s “Ride On,” and before taking her final bow with the band on April 21, Cummings joined frontman Jim James for a spellbinding duet of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” This marked MMJ’s sixth treatment of the Dylan standard, which they debuted back in 2013. From this powerful intro, the band closed out the night with James’ solo original “State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.),” followed by the always exciting “Spring (Among the Living)” and “Wordless Chorus.”
My Morning Jacket will return to the stage tonight, April 18, for a show at Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater. For tickets and more information, visit mymorningjacket.com/tour.
Read on for the full setlist from Thursday night.
My Morning Jacket
Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium – Athens, Ohio
4/17/25
Set: Beginning From the Ending, Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 1, Off the Record, Squid Ink, Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2, Tropics (Erase Traces), Circuital, Die for It, One Big Holiday, By My Car, Steam Engine, Smokin’ From Shootin’, Time Waited, It Beats 4 U, Gideon, Least Expected, Everyday Magic, Never in the Real World, Dancefloors
Encore: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door*, State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.), Spring (Among the Living), Wordless Chorus
Notes:
* Bob Dylan cover, w/ Grace Cummings
