In praise of Jason Isbell

The best.

(Jason Isbell)

Last night I had the pleasure of going to see Jason Isbell play a concert at Wolftrap. (Here’s the setlist for those interested.)

For people who have followed me for a while now, they know I am an Isbell devotee. I think he is the best songwriter of his generation.¹

Thanks to friends who were out of town, we had seats in the pit — just three rows from the stage.

When you are that close, you notice stuff. What I noticed:

1. Isbell can SHRED the guitar. He rightly gets attention for his songwriting. But man can he play the guitar. On a bunch of songs, he played the solo as well as the melody. Amazing.

2. His band really likes each him — and each other. Known as the “400 Unit” the band — a bass, a lead guitar, keyboards and two drummers — looked like the were having a GREAT time up there.

For this week’s playlist, I put together a bunch of Isbell songs. If you aren’t familiar with him, this will be a great intro to his music. If you already know and love him, this will scratch your itch for his stuff.

As always, these playlists are for PAID subscribers only. We are just 7 paid subscribers away from 900 so I’d love if you would join our team!