Jason Isbell | ||
| Allmusic Biography : After spending six years with Southern rock outfit Drive-By Truckers, singer/guitarist Jason Isbell left the group in 2007 to pursue a solo career. Isbell had already honed his songwriting skills during his tenure with the Truckers, and he funneled those talents into Sirens of the Ditch, a bluesy, punk-infused lesson in guitar tones and Southern swagger that marked his solo debut in summer 2007. While Isbell took a more introspective approach on his next two albums, 2009s Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit and 2011s Here We Rest, he enjoyed a critical and commercial breakthrough with 2013s Southeastern, a lean but compelling set written and recorded in the wake of Isbell coming to terms with his alcoholism. Newly sober and re-energized, Isbell began attracting a significantly larger audience for his concerts, and his subsequent studio albums Something More Than Free (2015) and The Nashville Sound (2017) reaffirmed his status as one of the most celebrated songwriters on the roots music scene. After parting ways with the Drive-By Truckers in 2007, Isbell wasted no time launching a solo career, and a collection of songs hed been tinkering with for years formed the basis of Sirens of the Ditch, which was co-produced by DBTs frontman Patterson Hood and featured former bandmates Brad Morgan on drums and Shonna Tucker on bass. (The latter was also Isbells former wife.) Backed by a new band dubbed the 400 Unit, Isbell took his songs on the road and soon began penning another album, which he recorded with the 400 Unit in 2008. Released the following year, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit was another step away from his work with the Drive-By Truckers, relying as much on sad, melancholic country ballads as the familiar Muscle Shoals sound. After performing more than 200 shows annually for several years running, Isbell took a breather in 2010 and returned home to northern Alabama. The area had been hit hard by the recent economic downturn, prompting Isbell to write a new batch of songs about the war vets, barflies, and out-of-luck characters who populated the area. The result was Here We Rest, which was released in spring 2011 to critical acclaim. Isbell followed it a year later in 2012 with a live set, Live from Alabama, recorded at the WorkPlay Theater in Birmingham, Alabama and at the Crossroads in Huntsville, Alabama. Embracing his newfound sobriety, Isbell next produced an album of haunting atonement and redemption, the sparse and impressive Southeastern, which appeared in 2013. Southeastern was a smash with critics and a commercial success that introduced Isbell to a new and larger audience. In 2014, Isbell issued Live at Austin City Limits, a video release documenting a set he played for the long-running PBS music series. Later the same year, Isbell returned to the studio to record the follow-up to Southeastern. The resulting Something More Than Free dropped in July 2015 and took home the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album the following year. In March 2017, Isbell released "Hope the High Road," the first single from The Nashville Sound, which arrived in June. Credited to Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, the album was fittingly more band-oriented than Isbells previous two efforts, boasting a bigger and more musically diverse sound. More touring followed, and in 2017 Isbell and the 400 Unit played a sold-out six-night stand at Nashvilles Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ol Opry. Several of the shows were recorded, and a 13-song concert souvenir, Live from the Ryman, was released in October 2018. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 4 Title: Sirens of the Ditch Released: 2007-07-10 Tracks: 11 Duration: 45:55 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Brand New Kind of Actress (05:31) 2 Down in a Hole (04:18) 3 Try (04:48) 4 Chicago Promenade (03:21) 5 Dress Blues (04:07) 6 Grown (03:42) 7 Hurricanes and Hand Grenades (05:07) 8 In a Razor Town (03:15) 9 Shotgun Wedding (03:45) 10 The Magician (04:16) 11 The Devil Is My Running Mate (03:45) |
| Sirens of the Ditch : Allmusic album Review : Although Jason Isbells rather sudden split from the Drive-By Truckers, after six years of guitar/songwriting employment, was unexpected by most, his debut solo disc had already been four years in the making. Perhaps that explains the appearance of three members of his old band (bassist Shonna Tucker, drummer Brad Morgan, and DBT founder/frontman Patterson Hood, who also co-produced this disc), who assist on nearly every track. Musically Isbell finds a more soulful, generally less guitar-centric groove in this Southern singer/songwriter rock. Even though it was pieced together from different sessions, this is a remarkably coherent effort. Songs such as the melancholy "Dress Blues" and the harder-rocking "Shotgun Wedding" dissect the lives of working folks from small towns that Isbell likely knows well, and his lyrics sympathetically examine the limited futures of many of the protagonists. He delivers these stories with honest, unpretentious, and dusky vocals that, with a modified Don Henley rasp, subtly frame his skillfully constructed words. Even with the substantial input from the various Truckers, few of that bands fans would expect to find the upbeat, near-folk pop with banjo accompaniment of "The Magician," a tune that uses the titular character as a metaphor for the life of a touring musician, on a DBT disc. Nor would the understated blues of "Hurricanes and Hand Grenades" or the lovely acoustic ruminations of "In a Razor Town," a song that wouldnt be out of place on an old Jackson Browne album, logically slot into the Truckers catalog. Every track is beautifully constructed, but none are fussy or overthought out, something not to be taken for granted concerning songs that took four years to finally appear. At times the effect seems almost too clean, as if Isbell is trying to distance himself from the grungier Truckers style. But this is a remarkably mature and impressive debut from an artist who seems like hes just getting started and his best stuff lies ahead of him. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 4 Title: Southeastern Released: 2013-06-11 Tracks: 14 Duration: 56:38 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Cover Me Up (04:51) 2 Stockholm (02:49) 3 Traveling Alone (04:27) 4 Elephant (03:37) 5 Flying Over Water (03:58) 6 Different Days (03:34) 7 Live Oak (03:35) 8 Songs That She Sang in the Shower (03:56) 9 New South Wales (03:53) 10 Super 8 (03:25) 11 Yvette (04:28) 12 Relatively Easy (04:45) 13 Elephant (demo) (03:55) 14 Traveling Alone (live) (05:19) |
| Southeastern : Allmusic album Review : Jason Isbell was one of three first-class songwriters in the Drive-By Truckers, along with Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, and each of them had (and has) his own spin on the kind of raucous Southern soul-country that band specialized in. When Isbell left in 2007 to pursue a solo career, there was every reason to believe he would continue in the same vein. Instead, Isbell produced work that still had some Alabama country twang, but was really closer to the folky singer/songwriter side of the spectrum, full of graceful melodies with thoughtful and literate lyrics. On this outing, Isbell strips things back even more, going with, for the most part, sparse, moody arrangements and songs that muse on the responsibilities of his newfound sobriety, an atonement of sorts, and they tell of lost weekends, drinking mouthwash when the alcohol ran out, and other sordid personal tragedies, all with an eye to how it seems to work out when problems are embraced, addressed, and finally owned. As such, this is an ultimately positive set that doesnt pull punches. Highlights include the beautiful opening love song "Cover Me Up," the elegant and sort of baroque country-rocker "Stockholm," the blast-along "Super 8" (which wouldnt sound out of place on any of the Truckers albums), and the love ballad "Relatively Easy," which closes things out here. The overall tone of this fine set is one of quiet and thoughtful honesty with ones life and past and the knowledge that personal redemption has to be earned again and again each and every day. It is, quite frankly, Isbells best solo album thus far. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 4 Title: Sea Songs Released: 2015-02-10 Tracks: 2 Duration: 05:38 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 I Follow Rivers (02:37) 2 Mutineer (03:01) |
 | Album: 4 of 4 Title: Something More Than Free Released: 2015-07-17 Tracks: 11 Duration: 43:38 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 If It Takes a Lifetime (03:40) 2 24 Frames (03:13) 3 Flagship (03:50) 4 How to Forget (04:04) 5 Children of Children (05:49) 6 The Life You Chose (04:03) 7 Something More Than Free (03:30) 8 Speed Trap Town (04:02) 9 Hudson Commodore (03:24) 10 Palmetto Rose (04:03) 11 To a Band That I Loved (03:53) |
| Something More Than Free : Allmusic album Review : Jason Isbells 2013 breakthrough album Southeastern was written and recorded in the wake of Isbells newfound sobriety, and it often sounded and felt like a musical version of the Fourth Step, in which Isbell took a long, hard look in the mirror as he came to terms with the emotional wreckage he left in his wake during his years as a drunk. By comparison, Something More Than Free, Isbells 2015 follow-up, plays out as the work of a man a year or so into his recovery, grateful but still working with the nuts and bolts of living as a better and more mature man while the shadows of the past remain faintly but clearly visible. The opening tune, "If It Takes a Lifetime," is sung in the voice of a man adjusting to a quiet existence, not in love with every aspect of life as a working stiff but happy to be in a better place, and it sets the stage for a set of songs that move back and forth between past and present as Isbells characters deal with lovers they wronged ("How to Forget"), the burdens of family ("Children of Children"), the dignity and restlessness of labor ("Something More Than Free"), and making sense of the responsibilities and disappointments of adult life ("Hudson Commodore" and "The Life You Chose"). Something More Than Free lacks some of the keen focus of Southeastern, in part because it plays on a broader emotional backdrop, and musically the set has a more eclectic feel, with poppier accents and a tone thats a bit more artful (there also isnt a full-on rocker here like Southeasterns "Super 8"). But Something More Than Free makes clear Southeastern was no fluke; the insights Isbell gained as a songwriter are just as evident on these 11 songs, and as a performer hes attained a nuanced maturity that demonstrates how far hes come since his days with the Drive-By Truckers (where he already sounded like a prodigy), but without a hint of pretension. Southeastern was a triumph from a talented songwriter and vocalist who stepped up to a new level; Something More Than Free shows Jason Isbell knows he just got there, and is still making use of that hard-won knowledge -- it confirms his status as a major artist. | ||