Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit Play New Year’s Eve Show At Brooklyn Bowl Nashville

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit rung in the New Year with a livestream concert at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville. Isbell, Amanda Shires and company played eight of the ten songs from their 2020 album Reunions for the FANS webcast.

Isbell and Shires returned to Brooklyn Bowl Nashville after the husband and wife duo played Reunions in its entirety during a livestream concert in May to celebrate the LP’s release. To get going, Isbell introduced the band as being from “Muscle Shoals, Alabama for the most part” and said, “I can’t think of a single New Year’s Eve that I have anticipated with the ferocity of joy that I’m anticipating this one.” Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit — consisting of Isbell on guitar, Shires on fiddle, bassist Jimbo Hart, guitarist Sadler Vaden, drummer Chad Gamble and keyboardist Derry deBorja — kicked things off with Reunions’ “Overseas” with Isbell reeling off the forlorn opening riffs on his Fender Stratocaster over some choral synth from deBorja. Next up, Shires sang high harmonies over Isbell’s melody on “Hope The High Road” from The 400 Unit’s 2017 album, The Nashville Sound, before the band returned to Reunions with “Running With Our Eyes Closed.”

Isbell then led the group through the title track to the 2015 album, Something More Than Free, ahead of The Nashville Sound’s “Last Of My Kind.” After “Traveling Alone” from Isbell’s 2013 album Southeastern, the band reeled off three songs from Reunions: “Be Afraid,” “Letting You Go” and “Dreamsicle.” Isbell then delivered a section of earlier material with the staple “If We Were Vampires,” “Super 8” and “Alabama Pines” from the 2011 album Here We Rest. “Only Children,” one of the standout tracks on Reunions, came ahead of more staples in “24 Frames” and “Cover Me Up” before Isbell and company closed out the set with Reunions’ “What I’ve Done To Help.”

Watch video of the first three songs via the JamBase Live Video Archive below: