Jason Isbell\u2019s 2018 concert record Live From The Ryman<\/i> concentrated heavily on his previous three albums at the time: The Nashville Sound<\/i> (2017), Something More Than Free<\/i> (2015), and Southeastern <\/i>(2013). In the years since its release\u2014other than the pandemic year of 2020\u2014the Northern Alabama native has continued to hold down a residency at Nashville\u2019s venerable Ryman Auditorium each October with his crack band The 400 Unit. <\/p>\n
This entirely logical sequel to that 2018 release chronicles an evolutionary phase for Americana singer-songwriter Isbell and his band, with a fresh track list (not a single repeat) drawn mostly from Reunions <\/i>(2020) and Weathervanes<\/i> (2023), with a couple of notable exceptions. It also chronicles a fraught and flammable period of change for Isbell. For one thing, the lineup of his longtime backing band The 400 Unit was in flux, with the group\u2019s beloved founding bassist Jimbo Hart departing in summer 2023, replaced by Anna Butterss, and multi-instrumentalist Will Johnson joining in the same lineup shuffle. For another, we now know that the October 2023 dates that supplied two thirds of the tracks on this double album happened as Isbell\u2019s marriage to fellow singer-songwriter Amanda Shires\u2014celebrated on Southeastern <\/i>and on stages around the world for the subsequent decade\u2014was falling apart.<\/p>\n
All of the latter context sets the table for the performances captured here, which find Isbell delivering especially fierce renditions of songs like \u201cKing Of Oklahoma\u201d and \u201cDreamsicle\u201d\u2014both about the impact faltering relationships are having on a family, and both October 2023 recordings\u2014whose sharp edges and intensity seem impossible to disconnect from the context playing out in real time.<\/p>\n
Along with the emotional undercurrents, another unusual aspect of this album is that the vast majority of these songs are of very recent vintage, meaning Isbell hadn\u2019t performed them live all that many times since he recorded them originally. What comes through again is freshness; these songs aren\u2019t yet routine for Isbell and he still feels every line and every chord intensely. These are engaged, focused, and consistently strong performances. <\/p>\n
\u201cSave The World\u201d opens the proceedings, with Isbell dialing back the arrangement in the early going in order to give the song a more dramatic build, with the full band delivering a genuine wall of sound as they crash into that first urgent chorus. \u201cKing Of Oklahoma\u201d follows, a bruising anthem that Isbell and ace 400 Unit guitarist Sadler Vaden decorate with extended solos, before \u201cOnly Children\u201d slows things down with gentle, haunted harmonies showcasing new band members Butterss and Johnson.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverseas\u201d is faithful and ringing, with a gorgeous guitar solo that\u2019s almost certainly Isbell himself, and then we get to \u201cDreamsicle.\u201d It\u2019s a particularly impassioned performance of a song that feels undeniably personal, a song about being a kid whose parents\u2019 marriage is in trouble. The solo section is given extra room to breathe, capping off a sterling performance of one of his sharpest recent tunes.<\/p>\n
\u201cRunning With Our Eyes Closed\u201d and \u201cMiddle Of The Morning\u201d\u2014two more songs exploring troubled relationships\u2014end up feeling almost voyeuristic in this context, but Isbell holds nothing back, making for captivating listening. Disc one closes with a firm and warmly welcomed presentation of \u201cLast Song I Will Write,\u201d the second oldest recording here, from 2019, and the oldest song, dating back to 2009\u2019s self-titled album<\/a>. It\u2019s a song about everything falling apart and, um, it lands.<\/p>\n Context comes on strong again as disc two opens with flirty love song \u201cStrawberry Woman\u201d before finishing an acoustic sequence with the magnificent \u201cCast Iron Skillet,\u201d that rare song that won a Grammy right when it deserved to. The expansive \u201cMiles,\u201d the most innovative number on Weathervanes<\/i>, gets a nice showcase here with beautiful slide work from Isbell and a nimble transition into the jammy, soaring second section of this muscular mini-epic. Later on, they wow the crowd with a big crescendo before the closing reprise.<\/p>\n Isbell remarks on \u201cRiver\u201d making its live debut in this 2022 recording\u2014before that it had only been played at the bizarre Reunions<\/i> album release show, a spring 2020 live stream from an empty auditorium. It\u2019s classicist Americana featuring a damaged, dangerous narrator with a heavy conscience, who observes over a lilting melody that \u201c\u2026running til you\u2019re nothing \/ Sounds a lot like being free.\u201d Then \u201cWhen We Were Close\u201d offers a tart, slightly bitter look back at a relationship with a musical mentor who flamed out too soon.<\/p>\n Next up is one of the most interesting choices made here. \u201cRoom At The Top\u201d is the earliest recording on Vol. 2<\/i>\u2014the only one dating from 2017\u2014and the only cover. Tom Petty died on October 1, 2017, just days before Isbell\u2019s Ryman residency, and he acknowledged the musical debt he owed to his fellow Southerner Petty by covering at least one TP song every night of that run. \u201cRoom At The Top\u201d is a cool choice because it\u2019s not an obvious one (though you should definitely seek out Isbell\u2019s October 2017 cover of \u201cAmerican Girl\u201d<\/a>; wowza). Its presence on this album also feels like a message; it\u2019s the kickoff cut from TP\u2019s divorce album, with Shires on harmonies. \u201cI wish I could feel you tonight, little one \/ You’re so far away \/ I want to reach out and touch your heart\u2026 \/ Please love me, I’m not so bad \/ And I love you so.\u201d Ouch.<\/p>\n The album closes with a swaggering, extended rendition of classicist Southern rocker \u201cThis Ain\u2019t It,\u201d a bright and sassy anthem to finish up the night. Isbell leans into his natural growl as he ranges through this one, and in the fifth minute the band delves into an extended jam with Vaden and Isbell trading phrases and pushing each other beautifully until they move into a lilting, unison dual-guitar \u201csolo\u201d that\u2019s some kind of magic.<\/p>\n Context feels like it inevitably filters into almost every moment of this album. Whatever you make of that, Live At The Ryman Vol. 2<\/i> proves yet again that Isbell and The 400 Unit are a truly special ensemble, on par with Petty and The Heartbreakers in terms of their versatility, power, intuitiveness and combustibility. Not that many live albums feel vital and necessary; this one does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10037],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-47027","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jason-isbell-and-the-400-unit","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47027","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=47027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47027"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}