The Roots 'Get Over' With Joanna Newsom and Jim James

Posted on Apr 23rd 2010 12:00PM by Mike Ayers
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As the house band for 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,' the Roots are bound to broaden their pallet with the nightly revolving door of musical guests. EW's Music Mix confirms that ?uestlove and company have become enamored with two of indie rock's heavyweights: twee-harpist Joanna Newsom and My Morning Jacket's leading man, Jim James. The two, along with John Legend, are set to appear on the Roots next album, 'How I Got Over,' tentatively slated for this June.

While there aren't any details about what James' contribution is, we can only imagine his ethereal vocals will lend themselves quite well to a new, beat-centric environment. As for Newsom, Billboard confirms that the group has sampled her song "The Book of Right On' from her 2004 debut, 'The Milk-Eyed Mender.' Even though she's didn't lay down anything new, we can still start calling Newsom "the hip-hop-harpist"; it just has a fantastic ring to it.

The Roots have also been a fan of James' other work with Monsters of Folk, as Rolling Stone recently reported that the band has covered 'Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.).' There's no word if the other Monsters -- Conor Oberst, M.Ward and Mike Mogis -- were asked to join in on the fun, but we can picture the spontaneous combustion of the entire indie rock world occurring if that collaboration happened.

At the very least, this is a sure way to beat those southern-rock-pigeonhole blues that seem to be plaguing My Morning Jacket these days. In related news, Joanna Newsom brings her harptactular shows to Europe starting on May 9 at All Tomorrow's Parties in Minehead, UK and My Morning Jacket are currently touring the southeast and will open for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on select dates this summer.