In response to being his music being categorized as “roots music” or “Americana,” Jason Isbell has said, “I’m a rock guy.” In his performance at Wolf Trap on Thursday evening with his band, the 400 Unit, Isbell showed us he’s exactly that. ‘
While he’s praised, and correctly so, for his lyrics, Isbell’s also a fantastic guitar player, and live performance shows just how hard he can rock. He made this point effectively, late in the set, with an earth-shaking cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well” infused with the heaviness of Led Zeppelin and a dual guitar attack (with Sadler Vaden) evoking Southern rock predecessors like the Allmans and Skynyrd.
Jason knows how to sequence a set, and he gradually built to this, starting with some lighter songs like “Hope the High Road” and “It Gets Easier.” The latter deals with his experience with alcoholism, and how, with time, sobriety may get easier, but it never gets easy. While I don’t share his experience with addiction, I can say the same is true of living with the darker sides of our nature. Rage runs in my family. The longer I work to control and suppress it, the easier it gets, but it’s still inside of me, and it never gets easy.
Isbell’s last visit to the DMV was a series of solo shows at the Warner Theatre, touring behind 2025’s Foxes in the Snow. Reunited with 400 Unit, he’s reworked several of those songs with full band arrangements. Thursday’s set included “Crimson and Clay,” “Ride to Robert’s,” “Gravelweed,” and “Open and Close.”
Watch Jason Isbell perform “Crimson and Clay” live at The Capitol Theatre on YouTube:
“I’ve been writing songs for a long time,” he said, introducing “Outfit,” which he wrote for his father, during his time with the Drive-By Truckers. He followed that with another DBT-era song, “Decoration Day,” a harrowing tale of a feud, and he went back to that time for his encore with “Danko/Manuel,” about the tragic end of two members of The Band.
“Maybe It’s Time” was written for the Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga version of A Star Is Born. Every time I’ve seen Jason at Wolf Trap, he’s played “Dress Blues,” written from the point of view of a soldier, and I’m starting to think he’s trying to make a point. He paid tribute to his home state with “Alabama Pines.” The night’s heaviest song, a devastating account of a man’s relationship with a woman dying of cancer. “If We Were Vampires” might be a fan favorite, but it’s a pretty bleak take on love, too. He did come at love from a more encouraging angle with “24 Hour Frames” and “Cover Me Up,” which closed the main set after a raucous version of “King of Oklahoma.” He also worked in “Dreamsicle” and “Traveling Alone.”
Isbell mentioned he’s been listening to the evening’s opener, Patty Griffin for a long time. We’re about the same age, and I’ve been listening to Patty since the ’90s, too. Accompanied by her longstanding musical partner, David Pulkingham, she started the show with “All the Way Home,” which she described as “a little West Texas blues,” followed by “Back At The Start.” She nodded to the difficult times we’re in with “Long Time,” which she wrote “about some people suffering.” She got even more political with “Born In A Cage,” recalling watching MSNBC with her mother when she was dying. “Mother of God” was also influenced by her late mother. She rounded out her set with “Shine a Different Way” and “Up on the Mountain (Song for MLK.)”
There was plenty of politics in this show, but not preaching or grandstanding. Isbell and Griffin are master songwriters, never didactic, couching their commentary in narratives. And they set these narratives against melodies that make the medicine go down all the more easily. It’s no secret why they’re so respected by their peers and critics.
