Here we are then, completely up to date with Jason Isbell. After “Reunions” and the treading water covers album “Georgia Blue”, plus a twice Covid delayed gig at Manchester Apollo in 2022 that I walked out of after less than an hour as it was just plain boring (I did subsequently discover that he was ill, I’d rather he’d cancelled again), I was wondering if my love affair with Jason Isbell was at an end. 2023’s “Weathervanes” has settled my nerves on that notion, the fella still has “it” when he puts his mind to things.

I have to say that on hearing “Cast Iron Skillet”, the first song that was dripped out via YouTube, I wasn’t sure that he still did. It’s a good enough song but has some lyrics that sound like they came straight out of (Richard Ashcroft’s) rhyming dictionary and the line “Don’t wash the cast iron skillet, That dog bites my kid I’ll kill it” makes me wanna cringe and seriously dislike him in equal measure (I’m very much a dog person, we have 3. I’ve met plenty of kids in my life I didn’t like but never a dog, even the one that bit me). One of the reasons I like Jason Isbell so much are his lyrics and some of them in this song are really painful.

So I was getting doubly nervous when first listening to opening tune “Deathwish”. It’s a skeleton of a song, it sounds like a demo or perhaps like they couldn’t be arsed to finish the arrangement. It’s dull, it starts and ends and it never goes anywhere. These were the two songs that were released on YouTube to herald the albums release, what would in the past would have been known as the lead singles. You’d think the record company and the band would want them to be the ones that would best represent the album. For me these two don’t, at all, and they are my least favourite songs on the record. Thankfully redemption is nigh 

We all have artists that we’re going to stick with, those that we’re going to listen to their new music no matter what. I’ve had that with Bruce Springsteen and Paul Weller over the years (although I have to admit I reached my Weller apogee with “On Sunset”. That and the previous 3 or so albums had been so bad that I’ve not listened to “Fat Pop” and have no plans to do so). So after 8 solo studio albums (I’m not counting “Georgia Blue” as it’s made up of covers) why do I stick with Jason Isbell  ? To me he sits easily in company with Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle and John Mellencamp, a great American songwriter trying to find out about his place in the world as much as he wants to tell us about the trials and struggles of ordinary people, something he seems to understand. As with Springsteen I’m on this ride until the end, I get that not everything is going to be “Born To Run” or “Something More Than Free”, Springsteen’s efforts through the 10 years from around 2005 were patchy to say the least, but the diamonds in-between the occasional fools gold shine so bright that it’s always going to be worth listening to what’s going on.

And here comes the first diamond, “King Of Oklahoma” is a killer, ahhh Jason you’re back. It comes on a little REM with lyrics that hold an echo of Springsteen’s “Meeting Across The River”. It’s a working guy, down on his luck, doing whatever he can to make ends meet, legal or otherwise, but Molly is gonna leave and and take the kids and tells him he’s got some “shit to figure out”, it’s classic Isbell.

“Strawberry Woman” gives us beautiful peeks into Southern life “thick cut bacon on Texas toast” and a cowboy with square toed boots who “wouldn’t last five minutes on a pedal steel” all set among some beautiful picking and harmonica to tell us about his girl. “Middle of The Morning” has a lovely lyric that possibly sums up Jason Isbell’s view of himself quite succinctly “I ain’t used to this, seeing everybody’s hand, I was raised to be a strong and silent Southern man”. It makes me see him in a light that I recognise. When people reveal things I’m not ready for I tend to stay quiet on it too. “Save The World” is Jason the Dad pleading with his wife to assure him that she’ll make things OK for their daughter in an increasingly troubled world “Can we keep her here at home instead, Can we teach her how to fight”.

The second half of the record starts with “When We Were Close” a strident, rocking tribute to his late friend Justin Townes Earle who passed away from a drug overdose. Isbell admits in the lyrics “I was the worst of the two of us”. “Volunteer” is a gentle Country waltz with a beaut of a chorus. “Vestavia Hills” puts us back in Birmingham, AL and “This Ain’t It” is a Southern rocker. Closing song “Miles” leads us out more gently on another great chorus (“There's miles between us, But boy, you should've seen us, She was scared to let go of my hand“).

Jason Isbell isn’t for everyone, I understand that, but that thing he does and how he does it works for me. “Weathervanes” is a good album and has some moments that really hit home with me (“She used to wake me up with coffee every morning, And I'd act like I was sleepin' 'til she'd walk back through the door”) and I will be there waiting expectantly on whatever he does next.

King Of Oklahoma - https://youtu.be/GhIQRnl9zJE?si=72rFBvgyceAiD6jc

As we now know the 2020 US Presidential Election was a pretty fraught affair between Democrat Joe Biden and “Republican” Donald Trump. On the day after the polls closed, as the country (and likely the world), awaited the announcement of results it became clear that the result in the Southern state of Georgia would prove pivotal (as Trump has come to find out to his cost with him recently been indicted on election fraud charges in that very State). During that day Jason Isbell tweeted 

“If Biden wins Georgia, I’m gonna make a charity covers album of my favorite Georgia songs.”

Joe Biden did win Georgia and that’s how we wind up with “Georgia Blue” on Blue vinyl (blue being the colour of the Democrats). It was reportedly an idea that had already been kicked around and a rough track list had been drawn up. But following Isbell’s tweet, and Biden’s win, other artists expressed an interest. Brandi Carlile tweeted that she wanted to record the Indigo Girls’ “Kid Fears”, John Paul White of the Civil Wars wanted in. We also hear legendary bluegrass picker Béla Fleck and other emerging artists like singer-songwriter Brittney Spencer.

“Georgia Blue” consists of 14 covers of songs from or about the state of Georgia. It’s not just Isbell taking the lead here either, members of the 400 Unit also get to step up. The album is bookended by 2 R.E.M songs. To start we have “Nightswimming” featuring Béla Fleck and to finish “Driver 8” (one of my favourite R.E.M songs and it’s OK, this version doesn’t endanger my love of the original version).

Next up 400 Unit guitarist Sadler Vaden gets to sing the lead on Drivin’ N’ Cryin’s “Honeysuckle Blue” (Vaden was formerly a member of Drivin’ N’ Cryin’) a noisy rocker. However, the absolute and undisputed highlight of “Georgia Blue” is track 4 where Amanda Shires sings an incredible version of Cat Power’s “Cross Bones Style” in a swampy, Louisiana voodoo stylee. A great, great song by an artist who I previously knew nothing of and prompted me to dig deeper into both Cat Power and Amanda Shires music.

There are a trio of soul covers taken on. James Brown’s “It’s A Mans Mans Mans World” is sung competently by Brittney Spencer; “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” was a brave choice and I’m sorry Jason, but as much as I like you, you ain’t no Otis and finally “Midnight Train To Georgia” which just doesn’t cut it without the Pips ! The try at the previously noted “Kid Fears” is actually pretty good, it’s such a good song it would be pretty difficult to mess it up.

Although this doesn’t read like too much of a great review it’s an OK record, an interesting listen as I do like covers albums and all proceedings went to charity so I’m not running it down too much…except to say that when I die and if I end up in Hell I already know that Hell will feature this albums 12+ minute long take of the Allman Brothers guitar noodling dirge “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed” on constant repeat. Hearing it once was more than any human should be made to suffer (I’ve just listened to it for the second (and last !) time for the purposes of this piece and can confirm it is horrific) and on my digital copy of this album I’ve deleted that file so as not to risk ever hearing it again !

Thankfully “Cross Bones Style” (almost) made it all worth it

Cross Bones Style - https://youtu.be/OHZQywB0Lu4

I recall this albums release coming as something of a surprise to me. I read about it just a few days before it was released and I  don’t know how I’d managed to miss the news that it was due. So I didn’t have much time to prepare for it, suddenly it was just there. Leading up to its release Isbell admitted in an interview with the  New York Times that creating it heaped great pressure on him to deliver another great record after making, in his own words “three good records in a row.”. It put extra pressure on his relationship with Amanda Shires as he was struggling under the weight of his self-imposed standards.

“Reunions” doesn’t quite reach the heights of the previous 3 records but it’s in no way bad. It’s just that no-one can keep up that level of quality (hell just think of Bowie in the ’80’s). Weirdly, every time I go to play “Reunions” it feels like a chore. I always feel that getting through opening track “What've I Done To Help” feels like that. It has a chorus/refrain that goes “What've I done to help? What've I done to help? Somebody saved me/What've I done to help? What've I done to help, And not myself?” which is fine in itself but when you get to the end of the song it’s repeated and repeated and repeated on and on and on and on for way, way way too long. The song is a shade over 6 and a half minutes long, 3 minutes of it is that chorus/refrain just being repeated until you’re thinking “ALRIGHT ALREADY…GIVE IT UP !”. On my digital copy I’ve edited the song to a much less annoying 4mins 30 to preserve my sanity.

After that it all gets much better. The remainder of Side one is really strong, “Dreamsicle”, “Only Children” and “Overseas” are all strong songs about obviously personal subjects, the first 2 related to childhood the third has a hint of the difficulties of touring as a parent about it. In fairness “What’ve I Done To Help” isn’t a bad song it’s just 2 minutes too long.

Three songs on Side 2 really sum the record up. “St Peter’s Autograph” was written for Amanda Shires after she lost a close friend “Let him dance around our room, Let him smell of your perfume”; in “It Get’s Easier” Isbell once again addresses his ongoing sobriety letting us know “It gets easier, but it never gets easy”; “Letting You Go” lays out his thoughts on becoming a father and how he imagines he’ll cope with his daughter growing up “The best I can do is to let myself trust that you know, Who'll be strong enough to carry your heart”.

There is one thing that really troubles me about “Reunions”, a lot of the guitar work is more than reminiscent of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler. Now I realise that Isbell is a guitar virtuoso and all that goes with that (he’s a self confessed Knopfler fan) but you really could pick your influences a little better Jason.

It’s another intensely personal set of songs and I’d hate for you to think Jason Isnell’s schtick is nothing but streams of self pity, it’s not, he’s a genuinely great songwriter who has a need to write about what he knows and what’s happening to him. He put himself under pressure due to the quality of his previous 3 albums. “Reunions” doesn’t reach those levels but it’s a good record with two or three songs that would have graced any of those previous three albums.

It Gets Easier - https://youtu.be/2CagbTwPxXw?si=i_Mcw81JYiTPUgy8