Jason Isbell’s seventh album, Reunions, came out in May 2020 in the early days of Covid. Its air of melancholy nostalgia proved a perfect soundtrack for those uncertain times.
Recorded once again with The 400 Unit, the album finds Isbell digging into his past. “There’s ghosts all over the record,” he said in an interview. “That’s why I called it Reunions, because that’s what a ghost is: reuniting with somebody long enough for them to tell you what you missed the first time around.”
Continuing my Jason Isbell deep dive…
The gateway album for a favorite artist (the first work of theirs you hear) always holds a special place. Often it ends up being my favorite release. In the case of Jason Isbell, that album was 2017’s The Nashville Sound.
This record came to my attention after the track ‘If We Were Vampires’ showed up at #20 on the year-end Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll. The album showed up at #5 on the publication’s albums list.
Jason Isbell kept up his pattern of releasing a new album every two years, dropping Something More Than Free in 2015. It was his second straight record without the 400 Unit backing him.
This album finds Isbell in the same sweet spot as Here We Rest and Southeastern. All of his releases are good to great, but these three form the Jason Isbell Holy Trinity.
Another two years passed before Jason Isbell released his fourth studio album, 2013’s Southeastern. And they were an eventful two years, finding Isbell in rehab for his drug and alcohol addiction. It was an experience he poured right into the music on this record.
The album was recorded without the 400 Unit due to the personal nature of the material. Initially planned as a solo acoustic release, Isbell eventually brought in other musicians to flesh out the sound.
Jason Isbell toured for a couple of years following his sophomore album release, then took a break to work on his third album. The result, 2011’s Here We Rest, is the record that made me a fan for life.
Here We Rest isn’t the first Isbell album I heard, but it’s the one that cemented him for me as a truly special talent. It’s the moment he fully comes into his own as a solo artist, creating a song cycle that’s achingly sad but reassuringly resilient.
Meet Me In Montauk 