Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit – Georgia Blue

02-12-2021

Michael Jason Isbell (born February 1, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is known for his solo career, his work with the band The 400 Unit, and as a member of Drive-By Truckers for six years, from 2001 to 2007. Isbell's band, Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, is primarily made up of musicians from the Muscle Shoals, Alabama, area. The band's name comes from the 400 Unit, a colloquial name for the psychiatric ward of Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital in Florence, Alabama. It was originally called the 400 Unit because it was in a separate building from the main three-story hospital. After renovation in the 1980s, the ward was renamed as the Behavioral Health Center, also known as 1st North, and is located on the hospital's first floor. Isbell has spoken about the importance of his northern Alabama roots : "I definitely don't feel like I would be the musician that I am, or the type of songwriter, had I not come from that particular place," he says now. "The soul music that came out of there, and a lot of the soul-influenced rock and roll and country music that came out of the studios in north Alabama in the 1960s and 1970s had a big influence on me." Isbell said that working at Fame Studios was "everything" to him, that it was "a gateway towards the music that he wanted to play". In addition to citing Neil Young as a big influence, Isbell is a fan of singer-songwriter Ben Howard and guitarist Blake Mills. "Georgia Blue" is the eighth studio album released by Jason Isbell, and the fifth accompanied by his backing band the 400 Unit. On November 5, 2020, Isbell announced on Twitter that if Joe Biden won the state of Georgia in the 2020 United States presidential election, he would record a charity album featuring covers of songs by Georgia artists. After it was projected that Biden had won the state, along with the subsequent double Senate runoff election wins of Senate Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, he reaffirmed on Twitter that he was being serious and that he would begin work on the album shortly. Released for charity, this star-studded covers album celebrates music from the state of Georgia. It is a joyful affair with sadness lurking in the shadows. Jason Isbell floated the idea of "Georgia Blue" just after Election Day 2020. As the country anxiously awaited the results, Isbell tweeted, "If Biden wins Georgia, I'm gonna make a charity covers album of my favorite Georgia songs." As it happens, Isbell had been toying around with the idea for a while, long enough to create a rough setlist. After Biden took the state, thereby clinching his path to the presidency, that initial clutch of songs was fleshed out by friends and colleagues who were eager to participate: Brandi Carlile, for one, tweeted that she wanted to record the Indigo Girls' "Kid Fears," and John Paul White of the Civil Wars quickly offered his services. While other prospective pairings didn't materialize, Isbell wound up with a rich cast of guests, ranging from legends like bluegrass picker Béla Fleck to emerging stars like singer-songwriter Brittney Spencer. All of the cameos give Georgia Blue the slight air of an old-fashioned tribute album, the kind that blossomed during alternative rock's peak in the 1990s. During that decade, tribute albums showcasing a songwriter, style, or trend for edification, entertainment, or charity were so commonplace they almost formed their own subgenre. The artists covered on Georgia Blue also strengthen the connection to alternative rock's glory days. The album is bookended with two songs by R.E.M., the pride of Athens, Georgia, who also provided college rock's moral compass during the '80s and '90s. R.E.M. is a center of gravity on Georgia Blue, too, as Isbell covers tunes by Drivin' N' Cryin', Vic Chesnutt, and Now It's Overhead, every one of them a former tourmate, peer, or associate of the band. Even the Black Crowes, whose rousing "Sometimes Salvation" is performed with the Crowes' original drummer Steve Gorman, are part of R.E.M.'s orbit, as Chris and Rich Robinson, along with Gorman, cite them as a primary influence. Threaded through the alt-rock covers are songs that feel closer to the traditional definition of Southern music: blues, R&B, soul, and Southern rock. Here, the 400 Unit get to flex their muscles, sounding equally at ease with soulful grooves and jazz-inflected jams. Generally, the older the song, the closer they stick to the original arrangement, but that's not a detriment. Guest vocalist Brittney Spencer enlivens both Gladys Knight & the Pips' "Midnight Train to Georgia" and James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's Man's World," adding new vibrancy to these familiar oldies. Similarly, keyboardist Peter Levin helps give the lengthy version of the Allman Brothers Band's "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" a lively, limber swing, so that it never grows dull over the course of 12 minutes. As good as these renditions are, the emotional heart of Georgia Blue lies in those alternative rock covers, songs where Isbell and the 400 Unit allow themselves some freedom of interpretation. With assistance from Béla Fleck and Chris Thile, Isbell warms and softens R.E.M.'s stark "Nightswimming," pulling off a similar trick with "Driver 8," this time with John Paul White. Isbell's wife and bandmate Amanda Shires gives Cat Power's "Cross Bones Style" a steely strength, while Isbell milks all the melodrama out of Chesnutt's "I'm Through" and Brandi Carlile and Julien Baker turn the melancholic undertow of "Kid Fears" into catharsis. Such emotional bloodletting doesn't necessarily sit easily next to either the roaring "Honeysuckle Blue," a Drivin' N' Cryin' standard here sung by Sadler Vaden, a former member of the band who is now a guitarist in the 400 Unit, or the easy ramble of Adia Victoria's version of Precious Bryant's "The Truth." Yet the shifts in tone and style on Georgia Blue reflect a wide range of human feeling. At its heart, Georgia Blue is a joyful affair but there's sadness lurking in the shadows. Somehow, that's appropriate for an album conceived as a celebration during a time of crisis. ""Georgia Blue" is a labor of love. On election day 2020, when I saw that there was a good chance the state of Georgia might go blue, I came up with an idea : to record an album of Georgia-related songs as a thank you to the state and donate the money to a Georgia based non-profit organization. I will admit my motivations were a bit selfish. For years, I've been looking for an excuse to record these songs with my band and some friends. The songs on this album are some of my favorite Georgia-related songs, but the tracklist is not meant to be comprehensive. I would love to cover Outkast and 2 Chainz, but I don't think the finished product would be very good. We're a rock band, so we covered rock songs. We have roots in blues and R&B, so we enlisted some brilliant artists to help us pull off songs by Precious Bryant, James Brown, and Gladys Knight. My favorite part of the "Georgia Blue" recording process was having the opportunity to work with these very special artists, and I thank them : Amanda Shires, Brittney Spencer, Adia Victoria, Brandi Carlile, Julien Baker, Béla Fleck, Chris Thile, Steve Gorman, Peter Levin, and John Paul White. I hope you enjoy listening to these recordings as much as we enjoyed making them. Keep listening to good music and fighting the good fight." (Jason Isbell).

1 Nightswimming

Featuring - Béla Fleck, Chris Thile

2 Honeysuckle Blue

Featuring - Sadler Vaden

3 It's A Man's Man's Man's World

Featuring - Brittney Spencer

4 Cross Bones Style

Featuring - Amanda Shires

Mixed By - Lawrence Rothman

5 The Truth

Featuring - Adia Victoria

6 I've Been Loving You Too Long