Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound (June 16, 2017) Album • Page 26

the old Chase came to the phone after all

 

Serious chills watching this

 

We went to Nashville (from Philadelphia) for the Friday and Saturday shows, which were both excellent. Amanda opened on Friday. She told a long story about impulsively moving in with a guy on the 8th floor of some industrial building in a tiny room and on the first night he took her out for dinner to a bar that only had chili cheese fritos, so after four days she moved out...and then "I married him," as a way of introducing Jason, who played guitar for most of her set. Margo Price joined her to sing on "Midnight Rider." Her stage presence/stories are just excellent. She told us that Greg Allman let her open for them even when she was pregnant, when a lot of people in the music industry wouldn't. "He may not have started out a feminist but he ended up one." I mean, what kind of opener has Jason Isbell and Margo Price as guests and gets a standing ovation?

I figured he's been playing a different Petty song each night so we wouldn't hear any of the ones he's already played, and I also figured to myself it'd be cool to hear a deep cut and that "American Girl" is sort of the obvious one. But on Friday he closed with "nothing says Friday night better than this" and played that opening riff and it really is just a great fuckin' song, and they ripped it. (The above video). I said on here last week I'd like to hear "Listen to Her Heart" and astonishingly, that's what he played during Saturday night's encore, so that was awesome, too. Across those two nights he only repeated six songs (Cumberland Gap, Vampires, Cover Me Up, 24 Frames, Codeine and Hope the High Road). Saturday's main set ended with Cover Me Up -- somehow seeming more mind-blowingly passionate than usual -- and a blistering Decoration Day. Saturday also included two deeper cuts, both from the self-titled, Cigarettes and Wine and The Blue. If you can write a song like Elephant and it's not even necessarily missed during two consecutive nights, then you have a crazy-deep catalog.

What I know about Jason and Amanda and their relationship is only from the stage, TV appearances and social media posts, but it is honestly a stunning and beautiful relationship. He champions her and promotes her and still lets her individuate herself, and she does the same for him. Their outlook on life and their musical output are just awesome.

 

Damn, that sounds incridible Matt!

Got tickets for his Buffalo stop in January. Pumped.

 

Fucccck I should have found a way to go to Sat night, I would seriously kill to hear songs from the self titled album live.

 

I sold my ticket to his show tonight at the Ryman, bc at the last minute I decided to go see Craig Finn and John K Sampson instead. It was a tough decision.

 

Yeah thats an impossible choice. Jason does play in Nashville about ten times a year so...

 

Yeah that was the main reason I chose to miss this one. I've seen Isbell once already this year and probably like 8 times over all. I had never seen Craig Finn or John K Sampson. It's always hard to miss any show ar the Ryman though. I hate when shows I want to see fall on the same night.

 

I have yet to go to a show at the Ryman. Have traveled to Nashville for a show before but never at the Ryman, so that's a bucket-list item for sure. I've seen Isbell twice in the last year and will see him again in Dec and then maybe again in Jan, but the urge to try to find two tickets for last night's show was still strong haha

I've seen Craig Finn solo 2 or 3 times though and it's always been great

 

Including 3 more Nashville shows already announced for December haha

 

I finally bought this on Vinyl. I got it through amazon and the plastic was open. Record looks fine but there is no lyric sheet. Is this the norm or is it missing for me?

 

There should be a big lyric booklet.

 

Ten days until I get to see this guy live again for the third time in 15 months! Can't wait!!!

 

I need to come up with the tickets for next month

 

He's also playing two more shows in January within easy striking distance of me...the temptation to be a groupie mounts

 

I'll be at both days of this Folk Festival | The Ark

Can't wait!

 

I'm pondering that one too, Ann Arbor isn't far from me

 

@zmtr Have you been to the Folk Fest recently? I went once (maybe 2011), when Ryan Adams and Dawes were on the bill. They were both great, but had to play really short sets because there were so many other names on the program. And the other acts ranged from pleasantly dull to painful to sit through. I was not impressed and have not been back.

 

I went the year after you did, it seems.

36th Annual, 2013 @ Hill Auditorium
Friday
City and Colour
Rodriguez
Trampled by Turtles
Delta Rae
Carl Broemel
Frontier Ruckus
Brown Bird
Colin Hay, MC

I got there right when Frontier Ruckus (who i enjoy) started playing. The next two acts were pretty boring but TBT > Rodriguez > C&C was fantastic.

 

I'm definitely going to listen through the rest of the artists on the bill this year before I spend all the money. Looking at the line up you went to, I can see what you mean. I haven't heard of any of them.

 

I hadn't revisited Here We Rest in a while. It's amazing how a song like We've Met can hit me like a ton of bricks upon revisiting when I never payed it much mind for 6 years.


And I could copy and paste this same thing for The Magician on Sirens of the Ditch. These two songs have been in heavy rotation lately. This man keeps on giving.

 

Yeah Jason's career has sort of a very clear progression of like, writing one or two or three songs for DBT albums, then having to write full albums which were mostly uneven with one or two or three standout songs, to Here We Rest which is so close, it's like just more than halfway there, and then obviously, it all clicked.

 

Here We Rest really is close. It stumbles a little in the second half, but I still think it's a great record overall. He eclipsed it afterwards, but I think he's still got four stellar LPs (and counting) in a row.

 

Here's my hot take: Jason hasn't put out a less-than-great record yet, and has continued to get better with each subsequent release