JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT: Reunions (Thirty Tigers)
Verdict: Craftsman on top of his game
When Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga wanted a new song to define Cooper’s hard-drinking character in their 2018 remake of A Star Is Born, they made the right call in contacting Jason Isbell.
Isbell was initially wary. But, after encouragement from his wife, fellow musician Amanda Shires, he came up with Maybe It’s Time, a wistful ballad that Cooper says became the touchstone for his portrayal of fading country star Jackson Maine.
The song, co-produced by Gaga, reiterated Isbell’s status as one of America’s best storytellers. His standing — alongside that of his band The 400 Unit — will be enhanced by Reunions, a new album that burnishes his writing with a slick studio sheen.
Jason Isbell, 41, shot to fame recently after writing Maybe It’s Time for Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s hit 2018 film A Star Is Born. His new album Reunions, ably backed by The 400 Unit, is bittersweet and marks Isbell as a craftsman on top of his game
The Alabama-born singer, 41, has reached stardom relatively late. He spent six years as guitarist with southern rock band Drive-By Truckers and sang on Beck’s Song Reader. Since breaking through in 2013, though, he has seen his reputation soar and he has now won four Grammy awards.
One of his dilemmas in making Reunions was how to retain his hunger while everything was going so well for him artistically and personally (he and Shires have a four-year-old daughter, Mercy).
He rises to the challenge in style, seeking out fresh angles lyrically and tackling big issues with a lightness of touch. He’s helped by The 400 Unit, a group who play a key role similar to that of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers or Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band: guitarist Sadler Vaden’s electric solos recall Mark Knopfler in his Dire Straits pomp; Isbell’s wife adds fluent fiddle.
Reunions is bittersweet. What’ve I Done To Help? unfurls across seven minutes, with subtle electronic backing and David Crosby on harmony vocals. Overseas examines long-distance love. St. Peter’s Autograph offers support to a friend in mourning.
Not everything is autobiographical. River is a detailed character study involving a murderer standing by the water’s edge, unable to live with his guilt: ‘The river hears my secrets, things I cannot tell a soul / Like the children that I’ve orphaned and the fortune that I stole.’
There’s a withering commentary on fame in Be Afraid, in which a jaded rocker barks orders at his roadie, and a wry reflection on Isbell’s battles with the booze — he’s a recovering alcoholic — on It Gets Easier. Disconcertingly, the latter is a bar-room rocker on which he admits he actually misses getting pulled over by traffic cops.
The album ends with tear-jerking ballad Letting You Go, which concerns a doting father dreading his daughter’s wedding. That day is some way off for Isbell, but his writing is no less empathetic for that. It’s easy to see why Gaga and Cooper were so impressed: they won’t be the last.
GRETCHEN PETERS: The Night You Wrote That Song (Scarlet Letter)
Verdict: Classy covers
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Another Nashville stalwart, albeit one who’s a New Yorker by birth, is Gretchen Peters. She has written for Faith Hill and Shania Twain, but her new album is a heartfelt homage to ‘hippie cowboy’ songwriter Mickey Newbury, who died in 2002.
Newbury, who arranged the medley An American Trilogy, famously covered by Elvis, was an eclectic soul. Vampire Weekend did one of his songs last year and Peters explores country, folk, psychedelia and pop noir here.
San Francisco Mabel Joy is a cinematic story-song. Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) is a timely tribute to the late Kenny Rogers, who had a hit with the track in 1967. With the onus on Peters’ rich voice, Three Bells For Stephen is classy and commanding.
Gretchen Peters’s The Night You Wrote That Song is full of classy covers, including a tribute to the late Kenny Rogers with Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
KENNY CHESNEY: Here and Now (Warner Music Nashville)
Verdict: Tried and trusted
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While some rock and R&B acts have postponed new albums, the Nashville hit machine carries on as before and Kenny Chesney is the latest country titan to deliver a record. The singer, briefly married to actress Renée Zellweger, sticks to the tried and trusted on Here And Now.
Chesney made his aversion to formal attire clear on 2003’s No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems and he does so again on We Do, saluting his ‘no shoes nation’ of fans in Stetsons and sun-bleached jeans. With taut rockers punctuated by the odd guitar ballad, it’s all sturdy, crowd-pleasing fare.
His puppyish enthusiasm is infectious. He glorifies a singer who blew his cash on ‘high living, wild women’ on Wasted. The title track celebrates seizing the moment.
There are rare glimpses of reflection — the banal Ed Sheeran co-write Tip Of My Tongue being one. A little more ambition would have been good, too.
- Jason Isbell is due to start a tour at the Eventim Apollo, London, on November 17 (jason isbell.com). Gretchen Peters tours the UK in February 2021 (gretchenpeters.com).