Record of the Week: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound

Jason first made an impression on me when he was with the Drive By Truckers.  His songs stood out.  Even surrounded by two other very good songwriters in that band, Jason songs still painted an image that was a bit sharper than of his colleagues.  When Jason left the band and went solo I made a point to follow him as best I could.  Since then I have purchased most, if not all, of Jason's output and each time his songwriting stood out. 

Right before I left Houston, Texas on my long drive to Los Angeles, California, I picked up two of Jason's latest CDs for the trip. The albums Southeastern and Something More Than Free found Jason, without his band, in a more traditional singer-songwriter format that helped to highlight his lyrics.  Both of those CDs were played more than a few times as I cut across the Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona deserts in my car.  The songs somehow fit really well during that trip and it was almost as if I was supposed to listen to them during that time.  A person has a lot of time to think when he is crossing half the country by himself in a car and the music you listen to burn harder in your brain. If you have not heard these two albums, go buy them.

Having that experience, I was excited to go out and buy this new release by Jason.  On this record he is back with a full band that includes his talented and beautiful wife Amanda Shires.  The band is solid and the electric guitars fill out the melodies nicely. 

Jason is a story-teller that uses music as his medium to express himself. The musical backdrop he uses is often called Americana.  Put differently, there is definitely some twang in his music and lyrics. The reason that I bring up the twang element of his music is that there are two other American songwriters that are able to paint similar vivid images using this backdrop: Jay Farrar (Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt); and Gary Louris (Jayhawks).  Jason fits nicely next to those two giants.

Check out Molotov and a live version Last of My Kind