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


Seasick Sailor

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Hey, question - I love Sturgill and have for several years.  I decided to listen to Jason Isbell 6 months back and bought Southeastern and Nashville Sound.  Really love both of those albums - I've definitely come around on Isbell being a great songwriter.  Kind of a side note but if you chart out Isbell's songs he's really great at putting together a song that is approachable/easily catchy but is actually not all that straightforward (verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus chorus out, etc).  At any rate - question is which album should I work through next?

Got married a couple of weeks back and our last song was If We Were Vampires.  What a great and interesting love song.

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5 hours ago, Celery Man said:

Hey, question - I love Sturgill and have for several years.  I decided to listen to Jason Isbell 6 months back and bought Southeastern and Nashville Sound.  Really love both of those albums - I've definitely come around on Isbell being a great songwriter.  Kind of a side note but if you chart out Isbell's songs he's really great at putting together a song that is approachable/easily catchy but is actually not all that straightforward (verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus chorus out, etc).  At any rate - question is which album should I work through next?

Got married a couple of weeks back and our last song was If We Were Vampires.  What a great and interesting love song.

Something more than free has 6-7 incredible tracks... speedtrap town especially. 

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Sirens is his best album

His songs for the Drive-By Truckers are his best work, IMO.  He liked to shred on guitar in those days, and the songs were just incredible.

Outfit, Decoration Day, Goddamn Lonely Love, The Day John Henry Died, Never Gonna Change.  Fuck yeah.

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Disagree. It’s Southeastern.


I should say my favorite. Southeastern is his biggest moment and has done far more his career than any other.

There are some songs on the back half of it that I just don’t care for.

Sirens was one of those albums that came out at the right time for me. Down In A Hole is the only song I ever skip.
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Granted I haven’t given it much of a listen but Super 8 on the back of Southeastern is weak.

I had The Dirty South and spun it on KVRX for my short lived foray into that but didn’t know about Isbell. As someone who played in bands and got kicked out of bands and drank alcoholically and recovered from alcoholism and played acoustic guitar a lot in that entire process, Southeastern clicked immediately.

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I like Super 8. Different Days, Yvette, New South Wales all bore me musically (but are very good lyrically). Don’t love Songs She Sang In The Shower either.

He’s found an audience with music that’s much lighter, for lack of a better term, than what I tend to dig. You could call the front half of Southeastern to be in this mold, but those songs are just so fucking good.

I’m happy for him, but it’s not as far in my wheelhouse as his grittier work. I keep holding out hope that he puts out a face melter in the future, but I don’t think that’s where he’s at these days.

I’ve really liked at least half of the songs on the last couple albums. I think it’s probably a product of being the only songwriter. In DBT he was only expected to bring 2-3 songs to an album, so he could cherry pick the cream.

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3 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

Man I guess I’m just way off. I think songs she sang in the shower is on his very short list of best tunes. Just a fantastic song imo.

You're more in line with most people than I am.  I routinely see it cited as among his best work and it's just never landed with me.

I'm very aware that I have a minority opinion regarding his career arc.  I think it's an inevitable feature of finding him through DBT and being more into what they do musically.

Edited by Al_4_ISU
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I gave Super 8 a bit more of a listen - I think I just get pre-bored and it sounds a bit out of place in how straightforward that song is musically and in how well trod of a lane it is in.  I do miss that a bit in Southeast - apart from that, the solo in Flying Over Water is a great moment but it's not a really rocking song and I don't think they are very present on the album.  I like Cumberland Gap on Nashville Sound a lot.  I need to swing by Waterloo and get a couple more albums to put into my truck (still feel that having a physical disk in the cd player of your vehicle is the best way to immerse yourself in an album).

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I gave Super 8 a bit more of a listen - I think I just get pre-bored and it sounds a bit out of place in how straightforward that song is musically and in how well trod of a lane it is in.  I do miss that a bit in Southeast - apart from that, the solo in Flying Over Water is a great moment but it's not a really rocking song and I don't think they are very present on the album.  I like Cumberland Gap on Nashville Sound a lot.  I need to swing by Waterloo and get a couple more albums to put into my truck (still feel that having a physical disk in the cd player of your vehicle is the best way to immerse yourself in an album).


Flying Over Water is the song off Southeastern I listen to most.
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I'm late on this discussion, but my fav Isbell is easily Live from Alabama, followed by Sirens/HWR. In addition to the setlist (as mentioned, basically a pre-SE greatest hits, it's also just a fantastic live album with warm sound quality and rawer performance.  I can't recommend it enough to someone who's checking out the older/DBT stuff for the first time.  

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It was June 2017.  He's put out albums every other year since Sirens in '07 and most were in the Summer, so he's running a little behind.

Sirens of the Ditch 10 33  
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
  • Release date: February 17, 2009
  • Label: Lightning Rod Records
131 3 17  
Here We Rest
  • Release date: April 12, 2011
  • Label: Lightning Rod Records
79 15 24  
Southeastern
  • Release date: June 11, 2013
  • Label: Southeastern Records
23 5 7
Something More Than Free
  • Release date: July 17, 2015
  • Label: Southeastern Records
6 2 1 1 1 32 17
The Nashville Sound
  • Release date: June 16, 2017
  • Label: Southeastern Records
4 1 1 1 1 30
[78]
26
Edited by 4th&Five
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1 hour ago, hullabelew said:

Have a buddy who loves that guy.  I don't get it.  At all.  

I have zero respect for guys covering new classics by current artists.  Write your own damned song.  (Nice mullet, too.  Travis Tritt wants his look back, and Travis could write.)

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