Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound (June 16, 2017) Album • Page 6

i'm trying to rationalize the wait by telling myself i want the record to attach to the start of summer when all my friends will scatter in the tristate and i'll be voluntarily homeless pulling out of here to win but i don't think it's working

 

About once a year I miss the time when I wrote reviews/got advances/etc. Today is that day for 2017. Last year it was the day Drew started posting about Goodness

 

Ugghhh this is entirely too far away

 

For those who were concerned about this album being too "rock," I don't think you have anything to worry about. This write-up RS Country did for their spring/summer album preview feature is pretty right on the money:

 

I'm so torn, I don't know whether to pelt Craig with questions or pretend he doesn't exist hahaha

 

Pelt!

 

What song should everyone be most excited to hear?

 

"White Man's World" is the big centerpiece. It's really well-executed and heavy, and doesn't come off as preachy at all. He ties it to his own personal experience. My favorite might be "If We Were Vampires," though. That one is a major gutpunch with some of his best lyrics ever.

 

UGH god damnit CRAIG

 

Do a "first listen" in the supporter's forum?

 

second this

 

Ooooh, that's a good idea. I'll try to find some time this afternoon to do that.

 

He played Last of my Kind on that radio show, just acoustic. Does the full band/studio version stand up to the acoustic?

 

I didn't listen to the radio show version, but the studio version is very sparse and restrained.

 

Does Isbell have any huge guitar solos like he tends to do live with Never Gonna Change?

 

"White Man's World" has a pretty terrific dueling solos section with Jason on guitar and Amanda on the fiddle. "Cumberland Gap" and "Anxiety" are also very "big" sounding songs that will probably have a lot of extended solo/jam sections at live shows.

 

Typed out a long question and then deleted it. I've decided that I don't want to know much more until I can hear the whole thing beginning to end. I just hope that he continues the upward trend where each record is in a league above the one before it--that for me goes back to the self-titled. Although in my mind the class above SMTF is something like "generational classic," and that's a damned tall order...

 

Okay fine, one specific question haha can't help myself: I grew up from the ages of 4-11 forty-five minutes from Tupelo, Mississippi. From what you can glean from the lyrics of "Tupelo," is the song connected to that town, or is it just a name?

 

Is the RSD stuff available digitally anywhere or is it Vinyl only?

 

As you know, I like Southeastern a hair better than Something More Than Free, but this has hit me harder faster than either of those did initially. I still think that his best songs are on Southeastern, but I do think this might be his most fully realized album yet. I need more time with it, obviously, but it has a very satisfying arc that should play especially well on vinyl.

It's about a girl, but the place is definitely a character in the song too, if that makes sense.

 

Craig, how many of the songs on there would you call "rock" songs versus Southeastern style introspective stuff?

Southeastern > Something More Than Free for me, but both are great.

 

Honestly, it's kind of half and half. There is some straight up country on this record, more than on the last few.

 

Great news! The radio show version of "Last of My Kind" made me think that his hanging out with John Prine all the time has rubbed off quite a bit.

 

Yeah, that one definitely has a lot of twang. I'll be curious how his "I don't like country but I like this" fans will react to it.

 

Well at this point he has snowballed to the point that they could all bail and it wouldn't hurt him. I feel like his fan base has doubled with each release beginning with HWR