A month or so ago, I made a post about how I’d realized my musical taste had weaved into some areas that surprised me, notably some things I’d have to call “pop” music.
It was part of an acknowledgement that in recent years, I’d really fallen into the habit of listening to the same bands and musicians I’ve listened to for years. My Spotify Year In Review was telling, both in the lack of new music and also the relatively low amount of listens. Podcasts had really taken over what I listened to when I have the time, and as a music lover that had to change.
Well, it’s not just pop music that I’ve been diving into - I’ll add that several of you sent me numerous artists you were into, and many of them are now in the rotation! Thanks so much for that. It takes a village, ya di yada yada.
But at one point near the Super Bowl, I heard that Chris Stapleton was performing and realized I honestly didn’t really know who he was. (I do now, thanks in advance.) Stapleton isn’t really my jam but in doing a miniscule amount of research, two names came up as alternatives to him - Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell.
With Isbell, this really was a moment for me. Because about a year ago, I had this Twitter exchange with writer (formerly of ESPN, now with No Laying Up) Kevin Van Valkenburg.
Look, am I proud of my ignorance? I am not. But as someone who used to listen to Drive By Truckers, I never once thought about what the names of the folks in the band were. (This is something increasingly true for me as I grow older. When I was younger, I knew the names of every single member of every single band I cared even a whit about. Now? Almost none. Whether this is a function of needing brain space for other things or a dottering memory, who can truly say?) But I went back and found this tweet and it had the desired effect. Because “Goddamn Lonely Love” is one of the best songs I know.
Have you too, listened to that song over and over and over at some point in your life? Well, that’s Isbell singing as KVV pointed out. Then I heard KVV on Justine Piehowski’s The Radio Ga-Ga Podcast talking about Isbell’s album Southeastern and I knew where to start.
Look, there’s no getting around the fact that this is country music, but it’s alt-country in a way that often reminds me of Uncle Tupelo or Son Volt (in fact, at least one member of Isbell’s backing band, The 400 Unit, is from Son Volt.) The country aspect is what made me blindly ignore Isbell when I heard folks talking about him; in general, I find most country music soulless and just not my jam. I know now that there are alternative country singers like Isbell and Sturgill that are a complete contrast to the corporate country songs that are quite literally written by focus groups and algorithms.
My current obsession, however is Cumberland Gap:
The song is about a guy stuck in a coal town, which feels like an almost by-the-book theme for a stock country song. But the music SLAPS, with a driving guitar that seems almost manic, and the lyrics just slay me - if the idea of being stuck in a small town isn’t particularly unique, suffice it to say Isbell makes it just more poetic. But his lyrics hit a new level of beauty in “If We Were Vampires” which is a gorgeous and sad, but hopeful look at love:
If we were vampires and death was a joke
We'd go out on the sidewalk and smoke
And laugh at all the lovers and their plans
I wouldn't feel the need to hold your hand
Maybe time running out is a gift
I'll work hard 'til the end of my shift
And give you every second I can find
And hope it isn't me who's left behindIt's knowing that this can't go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we'll get forty years together
But one day I'll be gone
Or one day you'll be gone
Its lyrics like these that make me sit up and pay more attention and in doing so, fall deeper into just how great a musician Jason Isbell is. Who writes a love song about how every day is a gift because you know, unlike vampires, life is finite? It turns out listening to more music is a good thing, even - especially? - if it leads you down a road you thought wasn’t worth traveling down.
This is one of my favoite episodes, if not my favorite. Now to fill the gap with more Jason and Drive By Truckers. Thanks, Greebs