Pigeonholing, quantifying, qualifying, labeling, and dissecting our beloved rock 'n' roll is in our nature. It's not intrinsically wrong, but often these conclusions are arrived at too hastily. Take My Morning Jacket, for example. Classic rock, right? Well, kind of.

"I can definitely see that," says the band's bassist, Tom "Two-Tone Tommy" Blankenship. "I don't think it's out of line with the sound, in a way. It's always been hard for me to describe what we do, and more what it sounds like. It's funny but I do say that, especially when I'm talking to friends of my dad or my mom, because I think they do kind of relate our sound to what they were listening to when they were in their 20s and 30s."

My Morning Jacket - Blankenship, Jim James (vocals/guitar), Carl Broemel (guitar), Bo Koster (keyboards), and Patrick Hallahan (drums) - came together in 1998 in Louisville, Kentucky. The band played big, bordering on atmospheric rock; big guitars, big drums, and vocals that sounded as if they'd been recorded in a cathedral. It wasn't long before folks started salivating, and hailing the band members as the new saviors of classic rock. However, Blankenship swears it was never a conscious component.

"We've always been that kind of band that... we don't really talk about what sound we're going for, or what a song sounds like when we're working on it," he says. "And just as far as writing in general, and playing and rehearsing, we don't really talk about that stuff that much, other than, ‘OK, that sounds great if we do that part three times versus four times.' But that's usually the extent of it."

And with the success of other southern-based rock bands like The Drive-By Truckers and The Kings Of Leon, it looks like there might be a Southern rock renaissance going on. Not so fast, Yankee...

"I don't think so," says Blankenship. "I think there was a period in the ‘At Dawn' and ‘It Still Moves' era where I think some journalists wanted it to be a new Southern rock revival or movement. And they tried, they definitely lumped us in with a group of bands. I could see where they were coming from, because we were all from the south, and there were certain elements of that sound in our sound. But I don't think we ever agreed completely that we were Southern rock."

Since the 2008 release of its "Evil Urges" album and the addition of things like a string section on some cuts and non-traditional arrangements, My Morning Jacket has begun moving into that coveted arena where the band's sound is finally referred to as its own.

"Now I think we've jumped all over the map musically, and I've seen all kinds of descriptions and comparisons to what we sound like," Blankenship says. "I don't think any of them are out of line, really."

What is particularly interesting about the band is that, despite its humungous sound, there is still a sweet simplicity about its music. It's hard to pinpoint how the band does it - even Blankenship is baffled.

"It's a tough one. I think just as players we're not... there are jam bands we like. There are players I love, like Stanley Clarke. I mean, there are all kinds of players like that that I really respect and I love, but I don't think that I'm one of those players. You know that certain kind of playing, where you're always playing, or everybody's taking a solo on every song. And I think all of us feel that same way. So everybody recognizes that you only need to play what services the song. And that's the kind of band we are. We're a song band. It's about Jim [James]'s songs."

My Morning Jacket has already started work on its next record, but Blankenship thinks it's too early to tell where the band is going with this one. Everything has been chronicled so far within the group's impressive discography: five studio albums, four live albums, three demo and B-side compilations, five EPs, and six singles.

"It's a little early in the process," he says. "I think it's a real mixed bag musically, but I can't say it's any one thing. We're kind of dipping our toes in all these different little ponds that we've jumped into and skimmed across over the years."

My Morning Jacket

w/The New Pornographers

Saturday, August 28

CMAC, Marvin Sands Drive, Canandaigua

7 p.m. | $28.50-$36 | cmacevents.com