My Morning Jacket to Tour With Preservation Hall Jazz Band

When My Morning Jacket hits the road this spring, the indie rock group will help a historic New Orleans jazz band still feeling the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina.

Beginning with a Birmingham, Ala., show April 4, MMJ will tour with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, hitting several states in the Southeastern U.S. The jazz band, which has featured various members through the years, originated from gigs at the historic Preservation Hall in New Orleans during the early '60s. But when the hurricane hit more than four years ago, the Hall shut down for several months. Since then, the band has struggled to find work and fund its outreach music program.

MMJ, from Louisville, first encountered the band a year ago, when front man Jim James was invited to record two tracks for the album 'Preservation: An Album to Benefit Preservation Hall & the Preservation Music Outreach Program,' which is due out Feb. 16.

The Preservation Band made a brief appearance in the movie 'The Cincinnati Kid' with Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson in 1965. My Morning Jacket, which toured relentlessly in the early 2000s, has been off the road for nearly a year.