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
TO THE TOP
''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
TO THE TOP
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