11840 - JASON ISBELL - SOUTHEASTERN (2013) (REPOST)

JASON ISBELL
''SOUTHEASTERN''
JUNE 11 2013
47:18
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1. Cover Me Up /4:54
2. Stockholm /2:51
3. Traveling Alone /4:29
4. Elephant /3:39
5. Flying over Water /4:00
6. Different Days /3:36
7. Live Oak /3:37
8. Songs That She Sang in the Shower /3:58
9. New South Wales /3:55
10. Super 8 /3:27
11. Yvette /4:30
12. Relatively Easy /4:45
All Tracks By Isbell
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Brian Allen/Bass
Dave Cobb/Percussion
Derry Deborja/Keyboards, Mellotron
Chad Gamble/Drums
Paul Griffith/Drums
Jason Isbell/Guitar, Vocals
Will Johnson/Vocals On 10
Kim Richey/Vocals On 2, 12
Amanda Shires/Fiddle, Vocals On 3
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REVIEW/AMG
Steve Leggett
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 doesn't 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 wouldn't 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 one's life and past and the knowledge that personal redemption has to be earned again and again each and every day. It is, quite frankly, Isbell's best solo album thus far.
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BIOGRAPHY/AMG
James Christopher Monger
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. 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 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.
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WEBSITE
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11833 - JASON ISBELL & 400 UNIT LIVE FROM ALABAMA (2012) (REPOST)

JASON ISBELL & THE 400 UNIT
''LIVE FROM ALABAMA''
NOVEMBER 20 2012
RECORDED AT WORKPLAY, BIRMINGHAM, AL & CROSSROADS IN HUNTSVILLE, AL, ON AUGUST 17 & 18, 2012
72:23
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1. Tour of Duty/3:36
2. Decoration Day/6:24
3. Goddamn Lonely Love/6:26
4. Heart on a String/4:23 (Mickey Buckins, George Jackson)
5. Danko / Manuel/8:00
6. In A Razor Town/3:38
7. Alabama Pines/4:11
8. Outfit/5:30
9. Cigarettes and Wine/7:19
10. TVA/5:12
11. The Blue/4:52
12. Dress Blues/5:39
13. Like A Hurricane/7:13 (Neil Young)
Tracks By Isbell, Except 4, 13
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Derry Deborja/Keyboards, Vocals
Chad Gamble/Drums
Jimbo Hart/Bass Guitar
Jason Isbell/Guitar, Vocals
Brad Guin/Tenor Saxophone
Chad Fisher/Trombone, Horn Arrangements
Rob Alley/Trumpet
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REVIEW/AMG
Mark Deming
Not long after Jason Isbell released his first solo album, 2007's Sirens of the Ditch, he released an EP, Live at Twist and Shout, which documented an in-store performance by Isbell and his band the 400 Unit at a Denver, Colorado record shop. Just four years later, Isbell has delivered another live disc, Live from Alabama, a full-length album culled from a pair of August 2012 concerts, and if one wonders why Isbell seems so keen to record his live sets, one listen will tell you why: Isbell and his band are at their best in front of an audience, and Live from Alabama demonstrates Isbell's impressive gifts as a singer, guitarist, songwriter, and frontman. While his work with the Drive-By Truckers was impressive, he's grown tremendously as a singer since striking out on his own, and with a crowd to cheer him on, Isbell delivers the goods on Live from Alabama, sounding richly soulful on "Heart on a String," rueful and evocative on "In a Razor Town," and full of bluesy swagger on "The Blue." If the 400 Unit lack the volume and firepower of the DBTs, the smaller, more dynamic combo leaves more room for dynamics and subtlety, which works well for Isbell's songs (the versions of "Decoration Day" and "Danko/Manuel" here rival those he recorded with the Truckers), and like his vocals, Isbell's guitar work is all the more impressive when it doesn't have to fight for space. As a storyteller, Isbell's tales of dashed hopes and Southern pride are powerful, realistic, and keenly intelligent, and he and the band bring them to life with just the right touch. And the closing cover of Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane" is a barn-burning finale. If you haven't seen Isbell and the 400 Unit on-stage, Live from Alabama will likely convince you to show up the next time they play in your area, and if you already have, this will remind you why you walked home impressed.
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BIOGRAPHY/AMG
James Christopher Monger
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. 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 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.
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WEBSITE
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9787 - JASON ISBELL - SOMETHING MORE THAN FREE (2015)

JASON ISBELL
''SOMETHING MORE THAN FREE''
JULY 17 2015
42:50

1 If It Takes a Lifetime 03:36
2 24 Frames 03:10
3 Flagship 03:45
4 How to Forget 04:00
5 Children of Children 05:44
6 The Life You Chose 04:00
7 Something More Than Free 03:26
8 Speed Trap Town 03:57
9 Hudson Commodore 03:20
10 Palmetto Rose 03:58
11 To a Band That I Loved 03:50

REVIEW
By Nate Nhinen, www.nytimes.com
Jason Isbell begins the title track of his new album, “Something More Than Free,” picturing the end of a day’s labor, his voice set against the lonesome strum of an acoustic guitar. He’s in character, as somebody in the construction or freight-loading trade, drawing his only comfort from a blunt sense of purpose and the hope of eternal reward. “I don’t think on why I’m here or where it hurts,” he cries in the chorus. “I’m just lucky to have the work.”

This feels like a pointed bit of role-play for Mr. Isbell, whose songs often abut the confessional, musing on where it hurts and whence he came. A former member of the great Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers, he famously hit rock bottom and lived to tell the tale, emerging into newfound sobriety with a clearer command of his art.

There’s more distance now from the darkness — he’s expecting a child with his wife, the singer-songwriter and violinist Amanda Shires — so it stands to reason that his music would reflect the change. It does, and what’s impressive is that Mr. Isbell, working again with the renegade country producer Dave Cobb, has maintained a taut precision in his new songs.

The best of them glow with bittersweet empathy: “Children of Children” considers the burdens of a young mother, and “24 Frames” is a dose of dark philosophy with the cadence of a how-to guide. “Speed Trap Town” brings heartbreaking specificity to the shopworn trope of the highway’s salvation. “Flagship” is a song of earnest devotion whose spark of being is the sight of an old couple in the bar of a faded hotel, “sitting there a thousand miles apart.”

His band, the 400 Unit, sounds more deeply engaged on this album, with rugged arrangements sweetened by Ms. Shires’s violin, or by a Mellotron. (They’ll play Celebrate Brooklyn! on July 24.)

And while Mr. Isbell’s music might owe something to past hardship, it’s also the product of honest work. He’s firm on that point: the jaunty opening track, “If It Takes a Lifetime,” is another character study, but it resonates with his own story. “My day will come,” he sings, the song unfolding as a fulfillment of that pledge.

BIOGRAPHY/AMG
by James Christopher Monger

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. 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 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, with Isbell and his band touring extensively in support. 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 stylistically diverse Something More Than Free was released in July 2015.

WEBSITE

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