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Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, and Other Good Stuff


Seasick Sailor

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 11/7/2022 at 5:07 PM, Celery Man said:

My understanding of that album is that he basically taught himself fiddle and then made an album of old fiddle songs + long violent history. Which is rad. I listened to it while moving to North Carolina and had Zollie’s Retreat stuck in my head long enough that I eventually just watched the Ken Burns civil war documentary again.

Listening to this album this morning during my half pot of coffee. Very cool to hear the waltzes. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Isbell’s earned the right to make whatever the fuck he wants to make.  He could fart in a microphone for 45 minutes and still get a 7 from NPR and sell out theatres.

So I don’t expect him to make something all that different than what the bulk of his audience enjoys, which is the schlock that’s comprised the better half of his post-Southeastern work.

But I’ll still always hold out hope that the next album is full of screaming guitars and absolutely gut wrenching stories.

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I could scrape together an album's worth of songs I like since Southeastern, but none of the albums after Southeastern have been better than any of the ones that came before it.

I'm not one of those people that think artists need to be killing themselves with substance abuse or miserable to make great art (just look at what BJ Barham's done since getting sober), but Southeastern put Isbell on some kind of meteoric rise that couldn't help but turn his music towards the poppy, accessible, and ultimately boring side of things.

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37 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I could scrape together an album's worth of songs I like since Southeastern, but none of the albums after Southeastern have been better than any of the ones that came before it.

I'm not one of those people that think artists need to be killing themselves with substance abuse or miserable to make great art (just look at what BJ Barham's done since getting sober), but Southeastern put Isbell on some kind of meteoric rise that couldn't help but turn his music towards the poppy, accessible, and ultimately boring side of things.

I Guess If You Say So GIF

Well said.  I wish I liked more of it, but nothing comes close to grabbing me like Southeastern did.  That might be an unfairly high bar as well though.

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4 minutes ago, The Royal We said:

I Guess If You Say So GIF

Well said.  I wish I liked more of it, but nothing comes close to grabbing me like Southeastern did.  That might be an unfairly high bar as well though.

I don't know that I expect him to hit that high point again.  That was a guy who was already a brilliant musician and incredible songwriter relaying the kind of powerful personal transformation that most people don't (most don't have to) go through.

But I'd be pretty stoked to get an album as good as Sirens of the Ditch, S/T, or Here We Rest, and I've finally given up on that walking through the door.  It's cool.  I'll always have those albums.  I'll always have those DBT songs.  I'm legitimately happy that he's earned a high quality of life from his music, even if his music does nothing for me anymore.

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Honestly, Sirens of the Ditch is my favorite and the one I listen to the most.

It's probably a "time in my life" kind of thing, but I think outside of SE, it's the tightest batch of songs.  I had discovered DBT in May of 2007.  Right around when he left the band.  I was immediately obsessed and quickly drug a lot of my buddies down the rabbit hole.  Sirens was the first album that any of them released after I'd become a fan and I was just frothing at the mouth for new music from these folks.

It was also a wild time in my life.  I had just graduated from ISU and was taking the year off from school to just decompress, work a normal job, and apply for law school.  I had just started dating my now wife that January.  My folks announced in March that they were splitting up, beginning a painful and ugly divorce.  My brother and I had moved in together with 5 other buddies into a party house in Ames.  Gene Chizik was prowling the sidelines of Jack Trice Stadium.  The music I was into in those days was very much a salve to the chaos around me, and I'll always be heavily connected to it.

Edited by Al_4_ISU
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Two what?  Cover albums?  
I am firmly in the fat drunk Isbell camp.  I haven't enjoyed anything of his since Southeastern.

Yes. Georgia Blue is not on Spotify.

A lot of the later stuff is better live than recorded IMO. Children of Children, for example, is epic live.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6rIjMU8NhMdTPwtl49SS2c?si=21ZEGv5lQUaHqz1x8SovoQ
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19 hours ago, Buzzrock said:


Yes. Georgia Blue is not on Spotify.

A lot of the later stuff is better live than recorded IMO. Children of Children, for example, is epic live.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6rIjMU8NhMdTPwtl49SS2c?si=21ZEGv5lQUaHqz1x8SovoQ

Children of Children might be his best post-Southeastern track.  Brilliant songwriting, and some shredding in the mix.  I like Speed Trap Town, Tupelo, Last of My Kind, and If It Takes a Lifetime a lot too.

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On 2/22/2023 at 7:37 PM, Buzzrock said:


Yes. Georgia Blue is not on Spotify.

A lot of the later stuff is better live than recorded IMO. Children of Children, for example, is epic live.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6rIjMU8NhMdTPwtl49SS2c?si=21ZEGv5lQUaHqz1x8SovoQ

This precisely. He needs to put out an album of Isbell songs that sounds more like a Sturgill Simpson record (doesn’t matter which one) or just… can I skip the studio one and listen to a life recording after they’ve toured with the songs for a few months? And don’t record it at the Ryman.

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I forgot about the sale, so maybe I am behind but these prices are doing my head in. I picked tickets on the top balcony first and they were $250+ fees each. WTF?

I’ve seen this dude probably 7 times, including at the student union. I don’t need to spend that kind of cash on this, especially the further we get from his better stuff.

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What are you looking at? Balcony tix are $59.50.

Yeah I saw that later. I was trying to get the first two rows of the balcony and those were $250 each for some reason. There is huge variation in pricing. No idea how they set these prices but I’m sure it’s some Ticketmaster fuckery.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Holy crap. What is the deal with Morgan Wallen (his music, not the other stuff)? My niece who is into Isbell and Stapleton and Zach Bryan etc was raving about him. I listened to 30 seconds of that new album and good lord that is some awful shit. Do people put him in the same bucket with the others I mentioned?

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I think the N word incident revealed a guy that wasn't necessarily some closet Klansman, but more of an immature asshole.

Who also makes terrible music.

If Morgan Wallen was out saving kittens from trees and leading racial justice marches, I wouldn't give a shit because his music sucks.

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