Jason Isbell has consistently been one of the best songwriters in popular music for 20 years, going back to his tenure with the Drive-By Truckers. On the second of three at the Warner Theatre, a room he praised highly — he recently appeared solo and acoustic, in a setting that highlighted his songcraft, warmth, intelligence, and humor.
Isbell’s solo tour comes as he prepares to release his first solo album in 10 years, Foxes in the Snow, this coming Friday, March 7. For the past decade, Isbell has recorded and toured with his consistent backing band, the 400 Unit. After opening with an old favorite, “Overseas,” Jason got into the new material, playing “Bury Me” and the title cut at the Warner Theatre on Feb. 28. Later in the set, he performed “Gravelweed” and “Eileen,” and he bookended his encore with “Ride to Robert’s” and “True Believer.”
“Last of My Kind” tells the story of a young Southern kid who goes off to college, where his friends — if you can call them that — give him drugs and drop him off in a bad part of town. After playing the song, Isbell explained that he went to college in Memphis (he recently completed his degree) and, when he played there, he had to explain to his college friends’ wives and girlfriend that no, they did not actually feed him drugs and abandon him.
“Did that actually happen?” he said people ask him about his songs. “Probably,” he said, because “there’s a lot of people in the world.” No one, he argued, “thinks Stephen King is a murdering ghost, but the moment you say ‘I’ in a song” people think it’s autobiographical.
Watch Jason Isbell perform “Last of My Kind” live for Sound Opinions on YouTube:
The truth, it seems to me, is a bit more complicated. Stephen King is not the best example, because the things that happen in his books can’t happen in the real world. (Despite the common fear of clowns, they cannot actually be ancient demonic monsters.) But a lot of people think horror writers must be some sick SOBs. (Funnily, I recently saw a clip of an interview with comedian and talk show host Craig Ferguson, where he describes horror writers as the “sweetest” people, while lambasting romantic comedy writers for being incredibly twisted. King himself often posts photos of his adorable corgi, Molly, aka Thing of Evil.) Perhaps a better example would be how a lot of people assume Philip Roth was drawing on his own experiences in his comedic novel of sexual dysfunction, Portnoy’s Complaint. (I suspect my uncle giving me a copy when I was 13 was some sort of bizarre, high-concept way to prank my mother.)
Conversely, there also examples of songs written in the first-person that I don’t think anyone has assumed were autobiographical. I’ve never met anyone who believed Bruce Springsteen was ever married with a family in Baltimore; that could be because, if you know anything about the Boss, you know he’s from Jersey. But I don’t think anyone has ever assumed Robert Earl Keen was an oil rig worker in Corpus Christi, and REK is a far lesser-known figure.
The truth, it seems to me, is something like this: People believe things are autobiographical when they smell like they could be. And this tells us something about human nature and our perceptions of it: people are quite ready to believe that college-aged men (boys, still, really) are terrible enough they would do the horrible things they do to the kid in this song. I know I believe it — I’m fond of saying that the human male isn’t an adult until at least the age of 25. (No one ever did this to me, but the guys in the all-male dorm at Oberlin did throw me into an industrial-size trash can during a 1999 episode of Monday Night Raw.)
The saddest song of the evening was “Elephant,” a heartbreaking story of a man’s relationship with a woman who has cancer. Jason recalled how once, after playing it, a heckler called out, sarcastically, “Play a sad song!” “I don’t like heckling,” Isbell said, “but if you’re going to do it, that’s how to do it.” He added, “If you don’t make me laugh, you just make me mad.” I would ask Jason: How could you ever be mad at me? I’m adorable! I’m a human Muppet!
Watch Jason Isbell perform “Elephant” live for SiriusXM on YouTube:
Before playing “The Life You Choose,” Jason talked about some of his successes, both as an artist and in his songs covered by others. He’s had gold records on his own, while some of his songs have been platinum hits for others. Alluding to “Cover Me Up” — which he didn’t play, or even name, explicitly — and to country star Morgan Wallen’s cover of the song, he said he hasn’t even opened the box and isn’t sure what to do with it. (Wallen has an extensive history of behavioral issues, including the use of racial epithets and throwing a chair off the roof of a building.)
While Jason didn’t play his song from the soundtrack to A Star Is Born (“Maybe It’s Time”), he did talk about how he got a call from Lady Gaga thanking him for the song. In a humorous and touching moment, he told the audience how he put his very young daughter on the phone with her to say “Gaga.”
Aside from a cover of Bon Iver’s “Beth/Rest,” the remainder of the set consisted of songs from his extensive catalog: “Tour of Duty,” the story of a soldier who’s returned from serving overseas; “Alabama Pines,” about his home state; “Traveling Alone;” and “Don’t Be Tough.” He finished his set with the love song “If We Were Vampires.” His encore, in addition to the previously mentioned new songs bookending it, consisted of a cover of Townes Van Zandt’s classic outlaw tale “Pancho & Lefty” and “24 Frames.”
The songs, of course were excellent, and they were performed with utmost skill. Jason has said he thought he was just going to be a guitar player, and he’s a fine one. The intro to one of the songs reminded me of Richard Thompson’s dexterous fingerpicking on “Vincent ’52 Black Lightning.” I don’t think this is an accident: Thompson open a series of show for Isbell, some years ago. It’s a high compliment to Jason’s Skill as a player that he can emulate this particular idol of his, who is known as one of the best guitarists in rock music.
Here are some photos of Jason Isbell performing at the Warner Theatre on Feb. 28, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Ari Strauss.
