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Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, and Other Good Stuff

Seasick Sailor

By Seasick Sailor
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Buzzrock
Buzzrock

This is blowing up today.

tbone_
tbone_

Not sure if this is the right thread or not but any Billy Strings fans? Kid is fantastic.

strangulation!
strangulation!

getting real close to wearing an outfit

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The Ace of Aces

The Ace of Aces 5377

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On 8/27/2021 at 11:46 AM, 4th&Five said:

Gimme Shelter last night

They did this at tonight’s show I was at and it sounded even better. 

The band is on fire. Lots of extended outros and they’re playing Super 8 heavier than I’ve ever heard. 

Great damn show. Setlist cause I’m a nerd:

24 Frames
It Gets Easier
Overseas
Something More Than Free
Letting You Go
Super 8
Dreamsicle
Be Afraid
Hope the High Road
Traveling Alone
What've I Done to Help
Only Children
Last of My Kind
If We Were Vampires
Flying Over Water
Cover Me Up
Never Gonna Change
Encore:
Tour of Duty
Gimme Shelter

Edited by The Ace of Aces
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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12623

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This new McMurtry album is reminding me that people who think Jason Isbell is the gold standard for active songwriters probably don't listen to James McMurtry very god damn much.

And this isn't a shot at Jason so much as it is a shot at the hive mind opinion on Twitter that he's the greatest living songwriter.  He's very good, but McMurtry has moved into "better than fucking everybody" status at this point.

Edited by Al_4_ISU
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Pescado_Rojo

Pescado_Rojo 19587

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3 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

This new McMurtry album is reminding me that people who think Jason Isbell is the gold standard for active songwriters probably don't listen to James McMurtry very god damn much.

And this isn't a shot at Jason so much as it is a shot at the hive mind opinion on Twitter that he's the greatest living songwriter.  He's very good, but McMurtry has moved into "better than fucking everybody" status at this point.

No one captures what I call the quiet desperation of the everyman like him. 

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12623

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10 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

No one captures what I call the quiet desperation of the everyman like him. 

Well stated.

He's an incredibly empathetic songwriter.  To make the obvious Isbell comp, there's no doubt which side of the political fence McMurtry is on, but he isn't lecturing people about it.  He builds his case by understanding and relating to people who obviously aren't him.  He can really put himself in shoes he doesn't wear, and he turns a phrase with the best of 'em.

I think the song that best encapsulates what you're referring to is "Copper Canteen".

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Pescado_Rojo

Pescado_Rojo 19587

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31 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Well stated.

He's an incredibly empathetic songwriter.  To make the obvious Isbell comp, there's no doubt which side of the political fence McMurtry is on, but he isn't lecturing people about it.  He builds his case by understanding and relating to people who obviously aren't him.  He can really put himself in shoes he doesn't wear, and he turns a phrase with the best of 'em.

I think the song that best encapsulates what you're referring to is "Copper Canteen".

That's a great one. There are so many..."Down across the Delaware", Stancliff's Lament", "out here in the middle"...the list goes on. 

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 47203

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I love McMurtry, but he's not the singer or even the player that Isbell is.

That said, McMurtry writes from a unique perspective that no other songwriter I know of can write from.  He gets the details, but in a different way than Isbell does.  

Who's better, Picasso or Van Gogh?  Fuck if I know.

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12623

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13 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I love McMurtry, but he's not the singer or even the player that Isbell is.

That said, McMurtry writes from a unique perspective that no other songwriter I know of can write from.  He gets the details, but in a different way than Isbell does.  

Who's better, Picasso or Van Gogh?  Fuck if I know.

Isbell is definitely a better singer and player.  Not even a competition.

But the best song on his last album wouldn't be in the Top 8 on the last McMurtry album, IMO.

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bschoolprof

bschoolprof 6343

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Back to Isbell, although I haven't cared as much for his most recent albums, I think most people recognize he's probably the most skilled lyricist of his generation. There are so many Isbell songs that I love of course for the melody and the story, but perhaps mostly for how gifted he is with lyrics.  They are just haunting and beautiful.   

So, rather than a list of favorite songs, here's a list of some of my favorite lyrics, off the top of my head (I'm leaving out a ton):

  • She lives down inside of me still, rolled up like a $20 bill.
  • I promise not to bore you with my stories and I promise not to scare you with my tears.
  • We’ll laugh like little children telling secrets, probably cry like old women drinkin gin. 
  • If there’s one thing I can’t take, it’s the sound that a woman makes, about 5 seconds after her heart begins to break.  
  • I said there’s two kinds of men in this world and you’re neither of them.
  • His fist cut the smoke. I had an eighth of a second to wonder if he got the joke. 
  • These 5a bastards run a shallow cross. It's a boys last dream and a man's first loss.
  • There's a man who walks beside me, he is who I used to be and I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me
  • Did she leave a trail of crumbs so you could find her when you're what you could become or did she know you well enough to realize that garden just won't grow?
  • And there's couple in the corner of the bar who traveled light and clearly traveled far; she's got nothing left to learn about his heart and they're sitting there a thousand miles apart

What are your favorites?

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4th&Five

4th&Five 42005

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What did they say when they shipped you away to fight somebody’s Hollywood war?

And I could find another dream, one that keeps me warm and clean but I ain’t dreaming anymore, I’m waking up. 
 

I know this time there’s no going back. The things that I owe you are the things that I lack. 
 

But I made it through because somebody knew I was meant for someone. 
 

There really ain’t no difference in Michigan and Maine, if you ain’t here to see this I’m missing just the same. 

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hullabelew

hullabelew 3730

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Holy fuck.  I could go on and on about McMurtry's lyrics and Rachel's Song"  is LOADED with them. "It opens with a great line about the 'eastbound C&O being dusted with a half inch of snow'.  His new one has so many as well.   He mentions details in songs that only someone who lived the life in the song's subject understands what he is talking about.  I'm actually going back through his albums and picking these things out...I'm just infatuated with the way he can pull this off.    He does it with every character he develops in his songs.  

From the new one, this one sticks out to me:  

Jackie:  "She leased all but the trap, ponies can't graze a thing.  Another bobtail full of coastal aughta last until spring"

And @Celery Man  Listen to "Levelland".  Didn't see it mentioned above.  The lyrics are fantastic and Grissom blisters his way through that one.  He is also all over the new one though I don't think I would start with the new one to get familiar with him.  

 

 

 

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hullabelew

hullabelew 3730

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Just add:  In Levelland...."I can hear the marching band, doing the best they can to play Smoke On The Water, Joy To The World".

Holy shit.  I can attest to the fact that if you were sitting on at the Texaco station  in Archer City (from Talkin' At The Texaco) in the mid-70s , you could hear the high school band playing "Smoke On The Water".  

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 47203

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3 hours ago, hullabelew said:

Just add:  In Levelland...."I can hear the marching band, doing the best they can to play Smoke On The Water, Joy To The World".

Holy shit.  I can attest to the fact that if you were sitting on at the Texaco station  in Archer City (from Talkin' At The Texaco) in the mid-70s , you could hear the high school band playing "Smoke On The Water".  

My favorite is "Mama used to roll her hair, back before the central air, and sit outside and watch the stars at night".  What a masterful way to put a time stamp on something.  BCA -- before (the) central air.  It probably existed, but they couldn't afford it.  I assumed her hair was wet, she went outside to catch the breeze and look at what she couldn't attain, but neither could anybody else.  There's a bit of philosophical equivalence between classes going on there.

I always wondered what life was like for James growing up with a literary icon like Larry McMurtry as his dad.  I'm pretty sure James went with his mom when his parents divorced, because he's said to have grown up in Virginia, and his dad spent most of his time in Texas.  His mom was an English prof, though, so James probably came by it naturally from both parents.

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hullabelew

hullabelew 3730

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My favorite is "Mama used to roll her hair, back before the central air, and sit outside and watch the stars at night".  What a masterful way to put a time stamp on something.  BCA -- before (the) central air.  It probably existed, but they couldn't afford it.  I assumed her hair was wet, she went outside to catch the breeze and look at what she couldn't attain, but neither could anybody else.  There's a bit of philosophical equivalence between classes going on there.
I always wondered what life was like for James growing up with a literary icon like Larry McMurtry as his dad.  I'm pretty sure James went with his mom when his parents divorced, because he's said to have grown up in Virginia, and his dad spent most of his time in Texas.  His mom was an English prof, though, so James probably came by it naturally from both parents.
I think he went with him mom but spent a lot of time in Archer City. Too many references in songs. Or maybe one little memory just sticks with him. I seem to remember reading that he spent some time on Dallas, assumed with his dad. All of the stories on Complicated Game have such intricate details. And "Don't you be yelling at me while I'm cleaning my gun". What a way to start the song.

"6 O'clock Whistle" is my life story growing up. The only difference is my grandmother took me down Scott Street in a Buick Wildcat, not a Dodge. But everything else is spot on. Having to go with her while calves got worked, waiting in the car at the beauty shop, driving thru a certain part of town and being told to lock the door, riding behind the mosquito truck as it sprayed DDT, bitching because grandad new what time lunch was so why was he late, watching her putting saccharin tablets in her tea.... I told him this once and he just looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about. He had just plopped down next to me at the bar before an Isbell show. Bartender thought he was a homeless dude.
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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 47203

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He's so cut out for surly.

I've told it before -- I used to see him a lot in my old neighborhood, usually at the video store, but one time I saw him on the other side of town and he was clearly trying to get through one of his kids' birthday parties at Northcross Mall skating rink.  He looked so fucking miserable.  When he caught my eye he looked like a hostage.

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Pescado_Rojo

Pescado_Rojo 19587

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2 hours ago, hullabelew said:

I think he went with him mom but spent a lot of time in Archer City. Too many references in songs. Or maybe one little memory just sticks with him. I seem to remember reading that he spent some time on Dallas, assumed with his dad. All of the stories on Complicated Game have such intricate details. And "Don't you be yelling at me while I'm cleaning my gun". What a way to start the song.

"6 O'clock Whistle" is my life story growing up. The only difference is my grandmother took me down Scott Street in a Buick Wildcat, not a Dodge. But everything else is spot on. Having to go with her while calves got worked, waiting in the car at the beauty shop, driving thru a certain part of town and being told to lock the door, riding behind the mosquito truck as it sprayed DDT, bitching because grandad new what time lunch was so why was he late, watching her putting saccharin tablets in her tea.... I told him this once and he just looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about. He had just plopped down next to me at the bar before an Isbell show. Bartender thought he was a homeless dude.

I think if you're a certain age and grew up in small town Texas a lot of that song resonates. My grandfather wasn't a rancher, but he owned a small business that was right down the street and came home for lunch everyday, and I definitely got told to lock my door driving through certain parts of town on the regular. You can close your eyes and boom, it's 1975 all over again. (Grandma drove a Buick, but it was a Regal)

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noharleyyet

noharleyyet 2864

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2 hours ago, hullabelew said:

I think he went with him mom but spent a lot of time in Archer City. Too many references in songs. Or maybe one little memory just sticks with him. I seem to remember reading that he spent some time on Dallas, assumed with his dad. All of the stories on Complicated Game have such intricate details. And "Don't you be yelling at me while I'm cleaning my gun". What a way to start the song.

"6 O'clock Whistle" is my life story growing up. The only difference is my grandmother took me down Scott Street in a Buick Wildcat, not a Dodge. But everything else is spot on. Having to go with her while calves got worked, waiting in the car at the beauty shop, driving thru a certain part of town and being told to lock the door, riding behind the mosquito truck as it sprayed DDT, bitching because grandad new what time lunch was so why was he late, watching her putting saccharin tablets in her tea.... I told him this once and he just looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about. He had just plopped down next to me at the bar before an Isbell show. Bartender thought he was a homeless dude.

Wichita Falls?

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hullabelew

hullabelew 3730

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16 hours ago, noharleyyet said:

Wichita Falls?

For me, the three song trilogy on "It Had To Happen" is just pure greatness.  No More Buffalo, 12 O'Clock Whistle, 60 Acres.   I can't listen to one by itself...the three go together

Yep.  And on No More Buffalo.........  "Those are combines kicking up that dust...."  What a line.... 

I'd point to the horizon, to the dust of the herds
Still hovering in the air
Somebody said it ain't any such
Man you wish so hard you're scaring me
'Cause those are combines kicking up that dust
But you can see what you want to see
Edited by hullabelew
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4th&Five

4th&Five 42005

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Georgia Blue, the new covers album from Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, will be released digitally on October 15th.  The celebratory recording features guest performances from Julien Baker, Brandi Carlile, Béla Fleck, Steve Gorman, Peter Levin, Amanda Shires, Brittney Spencer, Chris Thile, Sadler Vaden, Adia Victoria and John Paul White. All proceeds will benefit Black Voters Matter, Georgia Stand-Up, and Fair Fight.

Georgia Blue Tracklist

  1. Nightswimming feat. Béla Fleck and Chris Thile (originally performed by R.E.M.)
  2. Honeysuckle Blue feat. Sadler Vaden (originally performed by Drivin’ N’ Cryin’)
  3. It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World feat. Brittney Spencer (originally performed by James Brown)
  4. Cross Bones Style feat. Amanda Shires (originally performed by Cat Power)
  5. The Truth feat. Adia Victoria (originally performed by Precious Bryant)
  6. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (originally performed by Otis Redding)
  7. Sometimes Salvation feat. Steve Gorman (originally performed by The Black Crowes)
  8. Kid Fears feat. Julien Baker and Brandi Carlile (originally performed by Indigo Girls)
  9. Reverse (originally performed by Now It’s Overhead)
  10. Midnight Train To Georgia feat. Brittney Spencer and John Paul White (originally performed by Gladys Knight & The Pips)
  11. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed feat. Peter Levin (originally performed by The Allman Brothers Band)
  12. I’m Through (originally performed by Vic Chesnutt)
  13. Driver 8 feat. John Paul White (originally performed by R.E.M.)
Edited by 4th&Five
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