Jason Isbell - how big has he gotten?

I love when Jason (and the band) do covers (Like A Hurricane, Pancho and Lefty and the entire Record Store day release of covers), but that version of Born In The USA is probably down near the bottom of my favorites list. Just my personal opinion .

 

That's an amazing before and after! He looks completely different!

 

I enjoy Jason's material, but I do find it a bit bland at times. I also feel he has yet to top his DBT era songs.

 

I started with The Nashville Sound. I am blown away. So many great songs. I listened to it twice back to back.

 

I think "Elephant," "Songs that She Sang in the Shower," "Stopping By," "Cigarettes and Wine" are all as good as anything he wrote during his time with DBT. In fact, I think "Elephant" is the best song he's ever written.

 

He writes some great words. Musically I can see where you might be coming from. Sometimes he can get a bit drifty.

I think what sets Jason apart is he really does have something to say and says it with a voice from heaven.

The three or four folks (who arent hard core music people at all) Ive shared his songs with are immediately eye bright by his vocals. He has a sincere lonesome yet strong voice. It rings with harmonics.

Saw him live recently. It only confirmed this.

 

I saw him in concert a few days after the death of my mother. He did a solo acoustic version of Elephant that left me shattered. And, If We Were Vampires hit me almost as hard.

 

Fantastic lyricist. Real solid dude. Excellent guitarist. Great voice. The dude deserves all of the success he’s achieved.

 

Glad to see someone else thinks highly of “Stopping by”. One of my favorites.

 

I especially enjoyed White Man’s World, Tupelo, and Something To Love off of TNS. If it gets better than that, I’m in for a real treat.

 

He isnt in the greatest of voice here but I think his words just are really good writing..

 

I think he does take his work very seriously, not sure if he takes himself very seriously. He seems to be very grounded these days. I think all the recommendations people have made would work. I don't think listening to him do a cover would be the best route though. It is his songwriting that is what makes him special. I was late to the game, so what I did was start with the post alcohol album Southeastern, then Something More than Free. Those two convinced me that we might be seeing the best singer-songwriter of the 21st century. I then worked backwards from there. The Nashville Sound album that recently came out is very good but I'd listen to the earlier work first.

 

Alabama Pines and Codeine from his earlier solo work are great songs.

 

This is true. Jason is very funny on twitter.

 

Man, Live Oak, Elephant. Wow.

What I love about JI is that he's writing songs for adults. He's talking about real stuff. So much other popular music is either first-person infomercial crap (most rap and that ilk), of very cartoonish (the rest of modern country). I've tried to like Brad Paisley and Keith Urban. They're terrific musicians and seem to be good guys, but their music just doesn't resonate with me with Jason's does. JI is a remarkable talent.

 

Musically it's one of the least interesting songs Bruce ever wrote. It's really nothing without that big synthesizer riff and Max's drums. I get the idea of wanting to strip the song down to nothing to emphasize the dark tone of the lyrics, but it doesn't really work, because there just isn't much to work with musically.

 

I'd be huge fans of both if they just made instrumental albums. I had to endure Paisley opening for the Stones, and the parts where he wasn't singing were mind-blowing. Unfortunately there weren't enough of them.

 

The do a great cover of Atlantic City though.

 

It was okay. I'm kind of burned out on Americana covers of "Atlantic City" and "I'm On Fire." Like Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," someone needs to issue a moratorium on covers of those songs for a few years/decades. The 400 Unit can make just about anything sound great though.

 

This is really good!

 

With a great band and even better songwriting, I'm fine with listening to the original stuff Isbell puts out.

 

Me too, but I always like a good cover mixed in. Especially with Isbell & band, you know when they bust one out, it's just because they really get off on playing it.

 

I used to get annoyed with covers while at the same time really enjoying them. They've gotten to be required, I suppose because they work so well. I'm in !
But while the Allamn's Beginnings is pretty much all original or odd covers, or the Layla sessions, which I really admire, (ok, Little Wing aside), I get a kick out of hearing Aztec Camera covering Van Halen's Jump or Bauhaus doing Ziggy Stardust and Telegram Sam. (Gosh, this makes me feel old.)
So I guess I'll repeat a phrase I loathe -- It's All Good !

 

I'm not a musician working on their level, not even close, but I think anything that gives bands a bit of fun on tour is a good thing. Everyone gets a little tired of playing the same songs night after night, even their own songs, and I always assume if a band throws a fun cover in the set, it's for themselves, to keep things fresh, and maybe pay a little tribute to what inspired them.

As the industry shifts more and more towards live performance as a primary money generator, perhaps there's a greater incentive to provide more unique moments in a show that you can't stream on Spotify or whatever. So seeing artists bust out fun covers is perhaps a part of that. Every artist is just a product of their influences, so I always enjoy watching them pay tribute as long as it doesn't overshadow their original material, which it rarely does.

 

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