Jason Isbell - how big has he gotten?

I have been into Brandi Carlile ever since her debut. Saw her at the tiny Recher Theater in Towson, MD in 2007 right after "The Story" came out. She just released an incredible album that was #5 on Billboard last week, so I would not discount her ability to sell her share of the tickets.

I was later getting into Jason Isbell (just last year). I had heard a song or two of his that I liked, but never enough to really explore him. "If We Were Vampires" really turned my head when he released it last Spring, so I bought "The Nashville Sound", which I love. Then I bought "Southeastern" which blew me away. We saw his show a few weeks ago at the Lyric in Baltimore and he looked and sounded great.

I love them both and am glad that two people of my generation (late Gen-Xers) are truly making music that speaks to me. It's wonderful to find artists who are your peers and who can age with you and write to our experiences in this time. Brandi has always done that for me, when we were in our 20's and she was singing "Closer to You" and "The Story". Now, with the amazing final track on her latest album "Party of One" that has drawn apt comparisons to Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro. Go listen to it. And when Jason sings "Relatively Easy" or "Chaos and Clothes"... both of them are coming into their own in profoundly artistic ways.

 

Stapleton is booked into another nearby shed this summer as the full headliner (Marty Stuart's name is much smaller).

 

Ha me too, although it's pretty easy for me to comprehend why Isbell is more accessible to the average listener. A more radio-friendly voice, plus his stuff has that familiar-on-first-listen quality, whereas most of the best Truckers tunes tend to be "growers".

At his worst, maybe you can accuse him of going for easy sentimentality, but he's one of the best songwriters out there.

He's no Mike Cooley though.

 

I don’t see what all the fuss is about with this guy. His stuff sounds a bit bland to me. He’s got those two acoustic songs that are good, but the band stuff I’ve heard is kind of mediocre. Can anyone suggest a song that will change my opinion?

 

Probably not.

 

He's playing 15 or so shows with Richard Thompson opening - that oughta be good:
Tour Dates

 

I discovered him less than a year ago. The first song I from him that I heard was Cumberland Gap, which grabbed me on the first listen since it struck me as a perfect combo of 80s REM and Springsteen. Also check out Anxiety from the latest album. If neither of those songs grab you, then his music probably isn't for you.

 

Check out Cover Me Up, the song that hit it big

 

I doubt he'll ever be an arena-sized act (nor do I think he wants to play those venues), but he's going to be doing bigger and bigger theaters for quite some time, I think. I've seen him 4 times and it's one of the most consistently great gigs you can go to. Go see him if you can.

 

IMO he's the new king of "Blue" Country.

 

Having seen Isbell live, he puts on a great show and he's one of the artists I could get my wife to go see and have no argument. Was planning on seeing Stapleton until I learned the nearest date was the same night my best friend is getting married.

I think Stapleton is certainly the "biggest" of the new Outlaw trio (Isbell, Stapleton, and Sturgill Simpson) and is in the arena stage of things these days.

It's a matter of taste picking between those three but I preferred Isbell live to Simpson (who I saw last year), and Simpson's studio work to the other two.

Also, big DBT fan and I think Isbell's tenure in the band was a lost opportunity and a cautionary tale. Isbell's songwriting really blossomed on The Dirty South (though Decoration Day and Outfit from Decoration Day are about as fully arrived as you can get IMHO) and if they had stayed on that trajectory, who knows where they would have gone. The band recovered fine and are critical darlings, but don't quite have the appeal to the mainstream that Isbell does.

 

I'll be buying tickets this Friday for a summer show here in Portland at Thompson's Point, which is advertised as having "a scalable capacity of 2,500 to 5,000". It's a GA show and it will be interesting to see how big a turn out he and Brandi get.

Jason and The 400 Unit are a huge favorite of mine. About the only act that would surpass it for me would be a Richard Thompson Trio show.

 

Whoa!! Someone was a little 'heavy-handed' (pun intended) with the sharpening tool on that bottom pic.

 

I'm coming up on my 15th anniversary of my first DBT and My Morning Jacket shows, both at a 400 person theater in Denver within a few weeks of each other. It's been great watching Jason grow as an artist and a person. He and I are pretty much the same age (a couple of weeks apart) and I really connect with his lyrics and personal journey.

I'd have to flip through some old stubs and check but, including his time with DBT, I've seen him about 25 times now. And I don't plan on stopping anytime soon

 

Considering the career he has now, I don't think continuing to be the George Harrison of the Drive By Truckers would have been the best way for him to go, however it may have benefited them. He obviously has a lot more to offer than a couple of songs per album.

 

Go see him live. If you still find him "bland" and "mediocre" then I don't know what to tell you.

 

I think it would have benefited DBT significantly. For as much as I like Hood and Cooley, Isbell is the best singer of the three and the three guitar attack certainly served the band well. He was every bit the equal of them as songwriters and how he could have developed in a “rock” direction would have been something to see.

I concur that he’s a bigger star now than he would have been otherwise and he is better off for a whole host of reasons.

 

I think in most cases three songwriters is too many for bands to contain comfortably. It almost always falls apart after a few albums. And he was the latecomer so he was the junior partner. It's not always a bad thing for people to go solo.

(My post should have read "however much it may have benefited them")

 

Never heard of him!!!

 

While on the face of it this is a useless contribution to the thread.... at the same time, it makes me think about how it's common now for people to have sizeable followings and yet remain basically unknown beyond their own audience. You probably would not have said "never heard of him!" about a country singer in the 70s or 80s who had number 1 albums, even if you didn't listen to their music.

 

I was checking out both Isbell and Carlile live on youtube. Based on a limited sample I may even be more interested in Carlile.
Isbell maybe a little too country for me but I will likely check him out.

 

I will be seeing both of them at Forecastle this summer with Stapleton headlining (who I've never listened to) and Isbell (I am more familiar with his Dbt's work than his solo)

I am looking forward to Isbell more, but hope to be pleasantly surprised.

 

Exactly.....whilst I was admittedly being a little flippant, whether its a good or bad thing, there has never been a time when music has been more accessible, and yet saturation of platforms and volume of music means it is very easy to not hear or know about someone.

 

Have you picked up her new one? The stream, I'd heard, of "The Joke" wasn't very impressive. It sounds really good on the home system, though.

 

I have. It's more reminiscent of the Story, stylistically, than her more recent works. This woman has some pipes on her. So... I'll pretty much listen to her sing listings from the phone book and be happy. But the strings on this new one really stand out as being unusually special.