At 8:22 PM on November 5, 2020, Jason Isbell tweeted: \u201cIf Biden wins Georgia I\u2019m gonna make a charity covers album of my favorite Georgia songs – REM, Gladys Knight, Vic Chesnutt, Allmans, Cat Power, Precious Bryant, Now It\u2019s Overhead, etc… And damn is that gonna be fun\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr. Isbell is a man of his word, in every respect.<\/p>\n
It was unusual enough for the world-class songwriter to record an album of songs written by others, but to turn the fun quotient up all the way, he also recruited several notable friends to help. While a number of tracks here are straight covers by Isbell and his crack band The 400 Unit (Jimbo Hart on bass, Chad Gamble on drums, Derry DeBorja on keys, Amanda Shires on fiddle, and Sadler Vaden on guitar), the album also features a wide range of guest stars, many with Georgia connections, and Isbell only sings lead about half the time.<\/p>\n
The operating principal for the album seems to have been \u201cDamn, that would be cool.\u201d So, sure: let\u2019s reinvent iconic Atlanta band R.E.M.\u2019s iconic, piano-based \u201cNightswimming\u201d as a bluegrass ballad with Bela Fleck on banjo and Chris Thile on mandolin, joined by Isbell on acoustic guitar. The simple change from plonking big strings to plucking small ones utterly transforms the song, generating remarkable layers of texture, a fascinating, satisfying cover that freshens up the song beautifully\u2014and of course, pensive and melancholy is right in Isbell\u2019s wheelhouse as a singer.<\/p>\n
If you were wondering where the electric guitars were, though, you don\u2019t have to wonder long, as Isbell hands the baton to 400 Unit guitar slinger Sadler Vaden for a cover of his former Atlanta country-rock band Drivin\u2019 & Cryin\u2019s anthemic number \u201cHoneysuckle Blue\u201d (heh). Vaden both sings and plays fuzzy, crunchy \u201970s rock lead guitar and does a very nice job of both.<\/p>\n
Though born in South Carolina, James Brown spent much of his career working and living in Georgia, so a cover is certainly called for, even if his brand of sweaty r&b feels out of reach for Isbell. Smart guy that he is, though, Isbell recruits Brittney Spencer, the young African American country sensation, to sing lead on \u201cIt\u2019s a Man\u2019s Man\u2019s Man\u2019s Man\u2019s Man\u2019s World,\u201d and she absolutely knocks it out of the park. <\/p>\n
Maybe the greatest stylistic outlier here is the group\u2019s haunted, haunting cover of Cat Power\u2019s \u201cCrossbones Style\u201d with Isbell\u2019s wife and 400 Unit fiddle player Amanda Shires taking the lead role and adopting a bit of a Stevie Nicks wail at the climax of this moody number.<\/p>\n
From there we find highlights both lesser and greater. Covering Precious Bryant\u2019s \u201cThe Truth\u201d with Aida Victoria on lead vocals is undeniably cool, as is the band\u2019s thunderous take on the Black Crowes\u2019 \u201cSometimes Salvation,\u201d with original Crowe Steve Gorman sitting in on drums. And if you\u2019re going to cover an Indigo Girls song, you surely want the likes of Julien Baker and Brandi Carlile up front, delivering some serious vocal firepower. Finally, bookending the album with another R.E.M. song makes good sense, even if the group\u2019s take on \u201cDriver 8\u201d feels more reverent than revelatory.<\/p>\n
The remaining standouts do so for different reasons. When Isbell takes the mic again, it\u2019s for another iconic song by another iconic Georgia performer: Otis Redding\u2019s \u201cI\u2019ve Been Loving You Too Long.\u201d The dramatic piano and fiddle arrangement is terrific and Isbell sings the hell out of it, seeming at times like he\u2019s trying to out-Otis Mr. Redding himself. Thing is, it can\u2019t be done, which means this one can feel a little over the top in places.<\/p>\n
You might say something similar about the group\u2019s cover of the Allman Brothers Band\u2019s instrumental tour de force \u201cIn Memory Of Elizabeth Reed,\u201d with ABB keyboardist Peter Levin sitting in. At 12 and a half minutes, this number\u2014which takes inspiration from the definitive Live At Fillmore East<\/i> live version rather than the far shorter studio version\u2014was likely a blast for the band to play, and will likely be the same for a certain subset of fans to hear. Certainly, Isbell and band get room to stretch out and show off their considerable chops\u2014it just feels a tad self-indulgent in the context of an album of otherwise standard-length vocal covers.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s the number that feels inevitable: \u201cMidnight Train To Georgia.\u201d You know it\u2019s coming, and you know it takes courage bordering on foolhardiness just to sing a song that was so definitively rendered by Gladys Knight & The Pips. You\u2019re waiting to hear them fall short of that standard, and damn if they don\u2019t flat-out refuse to. With Brittney Spencer back on lead vocals, John Paul White handling harmonies, and a full horn section recorded at Sam Phillips Studio in Memphis, \u201cMidnight Train\u201d turns out to be the highlight of Georgia Blue<\/i>. The band has that Muscle Shoals r&b flow in their collective bones, the horns punch through at just the right times, and Spencer sings it like the young diva she is, giving the song every bit of passion and respect she possesses. Wowza.<\/p>\n
Beyond serving as a musical example of \u201cpromise made, promise kept,\u201d Georgia Blue<\/i> offers an abundance of quality craftsmanship and musical tips of the cap from one of the tightest bands in America. Fun was clearly had by all\u2014which isn\u2019t to say they didn\u2019t take the task of covering these songs seriously. To the contrary, they embraced the challenge and stepped up with a series of stellar performances. (As promised, all proceeds from sales of the album are being donated to three Georgia-based non-profit organizations: Black Voters Matter, Fair Fight and Georgia STAND-UP.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10037],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46332","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jason-isbell-and-the-400-unit","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46332"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}