Jason Isbell: Streetlights, Cigarettes & Wine

By: Dennis Cook

Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit by Allison V. Smith

Naming one’s album after themselves and their band has connotations as thick as any title. Without some other context one is left to assume that what they put on the stereo is representative of something central and true about the band in question. With some bands it might be simple laziness but the sophomore solo effort from Jason Isbell and his band The 400 Unit serves as a statement of purpose, a defining document of Isbell as an artist away from his pedigree in Drive-By Truckers. On Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit (released February 17 on Lightning Rod Records), his solo vision comes into its own.

“That’s great to hear! It was my goal to lay down some criteria about what kind of music I want to make,” says Isbell. “With this one I feel like I’ve made an album that’s extremely close to my favorite kinds of music to listen to.”

In a nutshell, Isbell and his 400 Unit – Derry DeBorja (keyboards), Jimbo Hart (bass), Browan Lollar (guitar) and a series of drummers but currently Chad Gamble – are like a punk rock band that really learned to play their instruments and sing.

“We’ll take that. That’s about as good as it gets,” chuckles Isbell. “I wasn’t into punk until I was a bit older. Touring with the Truckers I was exposed to a WHOLE bunch of punk rock. Mostly what I listened to when I was younger was arena rock, old country music and what was on the radio in the ’80s. There was a lot of good pop music on the radio in those days, which gets underrated for the most part. But I got exposed to a lot of punk with the Truckers and that bled into what I choose to do now. It’s almost the only way to approach it onstage. If you’re doing a good job it’s bound to come out with that same sort of energy.”

While even his own press materials put him in the lineage of Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, Tony Joe White and Arthur Alexander – all fitting reference points – that classic-minded outlook gives short shrift to his more contemporary echoes like Todd Snider and Marshall Crenshaw. The new record’s opening tracks, “Seven-Mile Island” and “Sunstroke,” are very modern sounding and the kind of thing he’d never likely have made in the Truckers, who he left in early 2007.

Jason Isbell by F. Yang

“That was a goal. I wanted to make something that was, in some ways, very modern,” says Isbell, who let the studio play a stronger role this time out. “We had a lot of help. We all produced it together. Matt Pence [Centro-matic, South San Gabriel] has The Echo Lab over in Texas and we brought him over to play drums on it and he helped out with production, too. We just had a whole lot of ideas bouncing around to tinker with, a lot of different sounds to go for, and I thought it was really easy to do that, easy to make the studio itself the bigger instrument. None of these songs had been played live at all, in fact most of them the band hadn’t heard yet before we went into the studio. I know everyone can’t afford to do that financially but we finally got to the point where we could go in and set up shop.”

Pence is an inspired choice to add to the 400 Unit’s mix, a fantastic drummer but more than that, a musician with big ears and good instincts about using what he’s learned over the years. Pence, and really all the guys in South San Gabriel and Centro-matic, are secret weapons in the world of rock. “They really are! Hell, in the world of polka – Matt has a Grammy for the Brave Combo record [2004 s Let’s Kiss, which Pence helped engineer/produce]. He’s really one of the most intelligent, resourceful people I’ve ever met,” offers Isbell.

Parts of Isbell’s catalog share a similar vibe to Centro-matic/SSG main man (and JamBase fave) Will Johnson, an elusive catchiness that’s certainly not mainstream but also doesn’t descend into the indie realm’s naval gazing.

“I definitely don’t mind hearing that at all. I even went out for a little bit with [Centro-matic] and just played guitar to be in the band for a few weeks, just to ride around in the van with them a couple years ago,” says Isbell. “Every time we’ve played with them or the Truckers played with them I almost always joined them onstage for their whole set. I even played bass with them one night in Park City, Utah. That didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped [laughs]. The bass player didn’t make it for some reason so I filled in for one night. There’s a lot going on with them and it’s all pretty equal parts.”

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I like [running my own band]. There’s a lot of things that are time consuming. You really have to learn to put your foot down sometimes, but that’s been really easy for me with these guys. I think they all have enough respect for the work I’ve done in the past to kind of feel they’re being led in the right direction more often than not. But for me, it’s a lot easier than being part of a democracy, which the Truckers came close to. I feel I get more of myself out on display this way. –Jason Isbell

Photo by: Allison V. Smith

Despite leading his own band for a couple years, for many, music writers in particular, Isbell remains “that guy who was in the Drive-By Truckers.” But, it’s something he accepts pretty well. “I don’t mind having that as a little bit of a legacy because I think we did some really good work. But at the same time, it’s time to move on from there,” says Isbell. “Pretty soon I’ll have NOT been in the band as long as I was. [The new album] doesn’t sound much like what they do.”

Jason Isbell

“I like [running my own band],” Isbell continues. “There’s a lot of things that are time consuming. You really have to learn to put your foot down sometimes, but that’s been really easy for me with these guys. I think they all have enough respect for the work I’ve done in the past to kind of feel they’re being led in the right direction more often than not. But for me, it’s a lot easier than being part of a democracy, which the Truckers came close to. I feel I get more of myself out on display this way.”

“I write the songs with them in mind; that’s definitely part of the process of being in a band rather than having hired guns that just back you up. So, I do keep the direction of the band in mind while writing songs, but they’re all such good musicians that it really changes once it gets into the studio or live sets. A lot of times they magnify and expound on things I’ve come up with.”

The songs on the new album reflect this group build, growing and expanding into places the opening sections rarely hint at, becoming something bigger than expected as they go. Grouped together, this feels a good deal more cohesive than Isbell’s 2007 debut, Sirens of the Ditch (see JamBase’s 2007 Isbell feature for more details).

“I think that had a lot to do with recording in a more traditional time frame. With the first album we were touring so much that we didn’t have time to go in and sit down to record for a few weeks. We had to do it when we could. That meant it got spread over a couple years actually,” recalls Isbell. “I think we all got in a similar mood and stayed there while we were in the studio making this record.”

Isbell excels at illustrating commonalities, that “there really ain’t no difference in Michigan or Maine.” His everyman quality bears some resemblance to vintage Bob Seger, which is a much huger compliment than many whippersnappers know. The trick is mixing in the right amount of sour to go with the sweet. Leadoff cut “Seven-Mile Island” is like a benediction that quickly goes bad, which somewhat reflects the overall mood and movement of the new album. “I guess the record somehow gets less hopeful as it goes on,” laughs Isbell, who ends the record with “The Last Song I Will Write,” a ballsy tune and title for someone who just turned 30 last month. “It’s not necessarily meant literally [laughs]. It’s just what I was feeling that day.”

Jason Isbell

In both his vocal delivery and songwriting, Isbell gives off a strong (and heartily welcome) Charlie Rich vibe on “Last Song,” “No Choice In The Matter” and the album’s slow burning standout “Cigarettes And Wine.” Isbell says, “Oh, that’s great to hear! Charlie is just so great. And Tom T. Hall is another one I’m a really, really big fan of. I have a belt buckle with one of his lines on it [from “Faster Horses,” which reads, “Faster horses, younger women and more money”]. ‘Cigarettes and Wine’ is clearly a honky tonk song, and the only one like that on the album. I honestly didn’t plan on putting a country song on the album. I wound up writing most of that one while we were in Europe and I finished it in a bar in Alabama when we got back home. It made its way onto the record whether I wanted it or not. You can’t ignore it even though it’s a pretty traditional honky tonk country song. You just want to keep people from calling you ‘Americana’ all your life.”

Isbell is also keeping the torch lit for mid-tempo rock ballads, including the perfect example “The Blue” in the new collection. It’s slow songs where musicians are most exposed and vulnerable, and any want in their music is laid bare. Isbell needn’t worry because he’s a duck in these still waters.

“There’s a lot of space in these kind of tunes,” says Isbell with uncharacteristic nervousness. “It can be dangerous but some songs just present themselves that way. You can’t really argue with them. They either come out the way they want to come out or you get ’em wrong.”

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit EXTENDED promo video from Corey Hannah on Vimeo.

Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit are on tour now; dates available here.

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