Jason Isbell - Sirens of the Ditch

Love it. I was a little worried after the substandard (for him) songs on Blessing and a Curse, but this is just incredible. I think it's going to be really popular, too.

I think it's going to be really popular, too.

This didn't turn out right, but I understand why you predicted it. Sirens is a really good -- if maybe a little too polished -- debut. Isbell's a major songwriting talent, tho, so I'm anxious for a new disc.

Love that album. "Dress Blues" is a protest song done right. "Hurricanes & Hand Grenades" just puts me in the zone.

Anyone but me heard Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit yet? Pretty outstanding in parts.

I'm most likely the biggest DBT fan on this board but I think the new Jason album is just plain flat-out boring.

Listening to this right now, pretty hit or miss on first listen. Weird that one of my immediate favorites was the two-minute instrumental piece in the middle of the record. "However Long" was pretty good too, but many of these seem to meander a little too long.

http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=5435

Just finished the first full listen, "The Last Song I Will Write" ends the thing on a very high note.

I just chatted with Isbell in Nashville and saw him do an instore here. I was impressed. The songs came across fine in a more "intimate" setting and I detect a real intelligence behind the new record. He sounds a bit down-and-out at times, but I think the last song, "The Last Song I Will Write," is aces, and plenty o' musical detail. An advance over the first record which I also dig.

Yes. The first time I heard this, I thought it was just too slow. But now I love it. Soldiers Get Strange is an obvious standout, one of the very best songs he's written.

The biggest problem with him is competing against his own past. He's not going to write many songs better than Outfit, because not many people have. I do wish he'd do a few more rockers, but on the whole this is an incredible record. If you think you'll like it, you definitely will.

Listening to it now, and I love it. Doesn't seem as shy or self-conscious as Sirens Of The Ditch, like he's not holding back quite so much this time out. He seems a bit more at ease with the kinds of songs he writes best. He's earnest, solemn, sincere...not everyone's cup, but that's what i've always liked about his writing. Can't wait to see him perform it live.

He's got a new album coming out, the very unfortunately titled "Here We Rest." Way to get the fans psyched up, Jay.

Just got the new album last night....still listening but I really like it so far. "Alabama Pines" and "Codeine" standouts so far.

Those are the two I like, too.

i dont know what it is, but I feel like a lot of his songs on the last album and some on this one are a bit overworked, or too much going on musically when his strength really seems to lie in the simple story-song...i mean, i get that he wants to explore more styles etc, and god bless him..but it almost feels like he is in a bit of denial? maybe? i dunno.

Yeah, I agree. I also hate the 400 Unit as a backing band. I like when Jason errs on the side of literate country noir and avoids the trappings of 'soul' (which DBT pull off, but Jason doesn't) and his post-Ryan Adams shit. His band is so sterile sounding to me. But this new one is my favorite of his solo albums by far, mostly for the two songs you mention. I like "Stopping By" too, in spite of myself.

I kind of want him to just pair up with Spooner Oldham , and do like a minimalist accompaniment album...really good songwriting, with a really good backing...just ONE person to put a shine on his words.

and yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the 400 unit as a band. It really shows on "Never Could Believe" where they're trying that zydeco style and nothing hangs together, all the instruments just kind of bang up against each other.

then again, he's a young dude striking out on his own...it is kind of fun to see him trying to find his way, because when he's good, damn he's great.

Yeah, he's a gifted songwriter, no doubt about that. I just wish he had a band with more teeth. An album with Spooner - like that great live thing Dan Penn and Spooner did a few years back where they played all the hits they wrote - would be great, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Dude seems pretty devoted to his band. Best I ever saw him was at an instore in Knoxville about six years ago, just him and a girl on fiddle.

I sure do miss him in the Truckers, though. Less so lately, but their peak period, to me, will probably always be the Isbell era.

For sure. They had way more bite while Isbell was there than before or since.

I'd be interested to see him collaborate with someone like Justin Townes Earle -- he played with him live on Letterman, I'd love to see them write some stuff together or share some songs or something...feel like they're both kind of *almost* there, that they could give each other that creative spark to really put them over. I dunno.

Has to be hard going solo after creating material of the calibre he did with the DBTs. Turning your back on it totally doesn't work, but trying to recreate it doesn't work either...kind of a weird place to be

Look, I'm not coming in here to namedrop or anything, just to say it's a really weird experience to see people from faraway places talking about people I kinda sorta have known for a long time with the reverence often afforded to other respected and popular musicians.

I don't know Jason at all tbh (though he's a friend of friends), but many years ago I was in the same circle of Muscle Shoals friends as Mike Cooley and Pat Hood and had several occasions to chat with them at parties and such and the original DBT bassist Earl Hicks was one of my close friends there for a couple years before they all packed up and moved to Athens GA.

Now when I read about them in Rolling Stone or see them on David Letterman, it just feels kind of surreal. (I'm not even really a DBT fan, either...but that's not important.)

a) it's all I can do not to want to shake you very hard and make you tell me everything you know about all of them :D

vs

b) I can't imagine how weird that would be. I mean you've said how weird it would be but...lol, whatever. I had a low-level similar experience a long time ago with some stoner friends of ours who won a battle of the bands on a national radio station and then suddenly were headlining huge festivals, everyone talking about oooh him he's so cool and I'm like, him? really? he's kind of a dork irl.
but yeah I know what you mean.

c) I kind of hate you right now Johnny Fever

it's all I can do not to want to shake you very hard and make you tell me everything you know about all of them :D

I know Hood was a notorious refrigerator beer-taker at parties, as in if you show up at a party and Pat Hood's there you're better off leaving your beer in the car and then going out to get them as needed.

Earl was pre-fame DBT, but he was the nicest dude. I'd go hang out at his place and listen to records for hours (he turned me on to Beefheart and Sonic Youth and The Band and Steel Pole Bath Tub and so on and so forth...he had a great collection). Also, he made killer spaghetti and meatballs.

I saw them with Earl! THAT was a peak period. I loved Earl.

I see those boys drinking Amstel Lite - good luck finding that in MY refrigerator. Even my wife makes fun of Amstel Lite and she drinks Blue Moon.

I love the Truckers the way I love Neil Young - they frustrate me. They befuddle me. But damn if I don't pre-order everything they release. They're probably my favorite contemporary band, all things considered.

People I know who've had run-ins with, err, certain members of that band have some very unkind things to say about them. I've heard the word 'opportunist' come up a lot. But who cares? Johnny Thunders was an asshole too. Lou Reed still is.

xp Not into JT Earle at all.

I like JTE. Each album is better than the one before it, so he's at least on the right trajectory.

But he can't write.

See? JTE has a great voice and a good musical feel but his songs lack a little depth... Isbell has a great voice and can write the hell out a good song...shrug...I think they'd collaborate well.

DBTs still feel like a road band somehow...in a good way. Rough around the edges, naively try out new things but always fall back to their roots somehow. They feel, normal? I don't know really anything about them other than just as band I've seen live a bunch of times and buying all their albusm. The one thing I will say about Patterson is this: I try to see a lot of live shows, popular bands that I didn't get to see in Australia, and I can't think of any lead singer other than Patterson that wears a big old shiteating grin 90% of the show, every show. He's not too cool to still be in love with his own band, to be psyched to be in front of fans who love the shit out of them. He loves the DBTs as much as I love the DBTS...I think that's why I like them. They kind of feel like people I know.

I like Isbell a lot better through the prism of the Truckers. His two or so great songs per album work a lot better in that context, compared to his own solo albums, where two great songs amongst a dozen OK songs seems a more conspicuous failure. Agree he could benefit from a spare presentation. Then, over-playing was one of the reasons he was apparently out of sync with the Truckers.

Should note that the two best Truckers are albums, the two outright masterpieces, are the one the came right before he joined and the one that came right after he left. For what that's worth. From a playing (if not necessarily a writing, yet) standpoint, I think gaining Shonna was much better for the band than losing Isbell was harmful.

You know what? Here We Rest is growing on me. He's got to drop the Stax Alabama soul thing, however.

First single off new album is available for free download off his website

It's pretty good! I still find myself waiting for those gut-punch songs to come back again. 'Codeine' off the last album was about as close as he's come. I like his output okay, but I just feel like he's got something really killer inside him that's gonna come out one of these days.

NYT mag feature

I had no idea about the rehab

Interesting piece

Streaming

http://www.mtvhive.com/2013/06/03/jason-isbell-southeastern/

wow I'm only 4 songs in, this is gorgeous

simple arrangements on the slower material really showcase his voice and his writing YAY FINALLY