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

Seasick Sailor

By Seasick Sailor
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hullabelew

hullabelew 3730

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12 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

I bought tix to all four nights of his Atlanta stand in December.

I hope they have done a structural survey of The Tabernacle.  After sitting vacant, that floor may collapse again after people come out for this run at that place.  

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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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Celery Man

Celery Man 21098

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What are some of y’all’s favorite dbt songs? I know The Dirty South pretty well, and I don’t really mean Isbell songs. I.. like them well enough, but a lot of that is Isbell. I often kinda wince at some of their music that feels really rough. I’m probably being unfair and haven’t dug enough into their broader catalog, hence the question.

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12623

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7 hours ago, Celery Man said:

What are some of y’all’s favorite dbt songs? I know The Dirty South pretty well, and I don’t really mean Isbell songs. I.. like them well enough, but a lot of that is Isbell. I often kinda wince at some of their music that feels really rough. I’m probably being unfair and haven’t dug enough into their broader catalog, hence the question.

I'll try to do a Top 10 that doesn't include the Dirty South.  First 5:

Might be my favorite Patterson Hood song.  

I lied.  This is my favorite Patterson Hood song.

4:41 seconds of Mike Cooley genius.  Late Night Johnny Neff's soaring pedal steel leads in the outro.  Perfection.

I think this song is lyrically as gut wrenching as Isbell's "Elephant".  It's about a stripper getting through her shift, while waxing philosophical about human survival and the way memory of our existence fades into the passage of time.

The pretty girls from the smallest towns get remembered like storms and droughts that old men talk about for years to come.

I guess that's why they give us names.  So a few old men can say they saw us rain when we were young.

Mother.  Fucker.

The opening verse.  Jesus Christ.  This IS rock and roll.

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12623

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2nd 5:

The band's ethos, and arguably Hood's magnum opus. From their first fucking album.  I can't die now cause I got another show to do.

 

Leave your drawers on girl, it ain't worth the fight.  By the time you drop 'em I'll be gone and you'll be right where they've fallen the rest of your life.

Everyone has a Zip City.

A treasure trove of Cooleyisms.  Cocaine rich comes quick and that's why the small dicks have it all.

 

It's great to be alive.

Whiskey's hard to beat.

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12623

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9 hours ago, NOMAAA said:

Wish the truckers would let Cooley write all the songs. That mfer can turn a phrase. 
 

https://open.spotify.com/album/0BLeswakDPJiv6yHJqGLua?si=35ik7lnSTlOlpo1jy9vdiA

He's the greatest songwriter born after 1960, IMO.

Regarding your post on Patterson, I've never heard him that way.  I definitely prefer Cooley, but that's because Patterson writes so many more songs that I could live without.  At least 50% of his output has almost no melody or hook whatsoever and kinda bores me.  That said, that other 50% is pretty fucking great.

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NOMAAA

NOMAAA 1700

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Celery Man said:

What are some of y’all’s favorite dbt songs? I know The Dirty South pretty well, and I don’t really mean Isbell songs. I.. like them well enough, but a lot of that is Isbell. I often kinda wince at some of their music that feels really rough. I’m probably being unfair and haven’t dug enough into their broader catalog, hence the question.

three dimes down

ghost to most

outfit

heathens

bob

my sweet annette

man maybe i like patterson more than i thought

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12623

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In the shower this AM I was listening to Birthday Boy and thinking about Elephant by Isbell, and it dawned on me:  has anyone ever gotten more mileage out of a single word than Isbell did in that song?

Profanity is something that can either be a crutch if it's overused, or incredibly dramatic and effective if employed at the right moment.

I honestly think that if the line in "Elephant" goes "if I'd met her before she got sick, I'd never hear the end of it" that Isbell never blows up the way he has.  By using "fuck" he absolutely grabs your attention and smacks you across the face with one single word.  He literally grabs your attention and drags you into that bleak, bleak hole.  With one word.

I believe that one songwriting decision had an immeasurable impact on his career.  That's the spot where your jaw literally drops the first time you hear it.  That's where it goes from "really good" to "is this guy the greatest living songwriter?".

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12623

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29 minutes ago, NOMAAA said:

i just noticed it and it might be 100% listener error or just picking bad songs.  world of hurt is great.  yeah i guess he is alright.

It's a big highlight of their live set.  Patterson will throw his arms up in the air, exhorting the crowd and yelling "IT'S FUCKING GREAT TO BE ALIVE".  Wildly cathartic.

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4th&Five

4th&Five 42005

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11 hours ago, NOMAAA said:

Wish the truckers would let Cooley write all the songs. That mfer can turn a phrase. 
 

https://open.spotify.com/album/0BLeswakDPJiv6yHJqGLua?si=35ik7lnSTlOlpo1jy9vdiA

It’s hard to sustain a musical career if you only put out an album every 5 years. Cooley goes on long songwriting droughts pretty frequently. 

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12623

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8 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

It’s hard to sustain a musical career if you only put out an album every 5 years. Cooley goes on long songwriting droughts pretty frequently. 

That's the rub with Cooley.  He's rarely prolific, but pretty much every song he lets out to the world at large is fucking genius.

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NOMAAA

NOMAAA 1700

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18 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

It’s hard to sustain a musical career if you only put out an album every 5 years. Cooley goes on long songwriting droughts pretty frequently. 

yeah thats a good point.  takes some time to polish up those gems. 

 

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strangulation!

strangulation! 1716

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a few more DBT recs:

when the pin hits the shell

do it yourself

where the devil don't stay (strongly prefer the isbell version, but it still rocks)

the buford stick

goodbye - love the bass line

the righteous path

darkened flags on the cusp of dawn

guns of umpqua - absolutely chilling

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 47203

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1 hour ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I believe that one songwriting decision had an immeasurable impact on his career.

I'd agree with this.  It was the first thing that really blew my hair back when I heard it.

It's a bit like the first verse of "Born To Run", which is the moment for most people that they realized Bruce Springsteen is a monster songwriter.

 

 

 

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tbone_

tbone_ 14447

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In the shower this AM I was listening to Birthday Boy and thinking about Elephant by Isbell, and it dawned on me:  has anyone ever gotten more mileage out of a single word than Isbell did in that song?
Profanity is something that can either be a crutch if it's overused, or incredibly dramatic and effective if employed at the right moment.
I honestly think that if the line in "Elephant" goes "if I'd met her before she got sick, I'd never hear the end of it" that Isbell never blows up the way he has.  By using "fuck" he absolutely grabs your attention and smacks you across the face with one single word.  He literally grabs your attention and drags you into that bleak, bleak hole.  With one word.
I believe that one songwriting decision had an immeasurable impact on his career.  That's the spot where your jaw literally drops the first time you hear it.  That's where it goes from "really good" to "is this guy the greatest living songwriter?".

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why he chose that word. Not sure I have a good answer. I probably wouldn’t have, and I cringe when I hear it because it seems disrespectful to his friend. But hey I’m not Jason Isbell.

We’ll probably never really know either. I always remember what my favorite English teacher told us in HS - no poet worth his salt would ever tell you what they meant regarding something they wrote, and if they did answer the question they’d probably just lie.
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bluto

bluto 4997

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I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why he chose that word. Not sure I have a good answer. I probably wouldn’t have, and I cringe when I hear it because it seems disrespectful to his friend. But hey I’m not Jason Isbell.

We’ll probably never really know either. I always remember what my favorite English teacher told us in HS - no poet worth his salt would ever tell you what they meant regarding something they wrote, and if they did answer the question they’d probably just lie.

I think there’s something to the general rawness of the emotions throughout the entire song, everything is stripped away. So saying fucked similarly cuts right through it all, short of saying ‘I stuck my penis in her vagina’. And it conveys not a relationship or deep emotional connection but just a bar lay. Plus that fits the setting of how I vision them both, bar regulars (kinda picture one or both maybe even working there), tossing around f bombs with ease.

And the tempo/rhythm fits with that word too.
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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 47203

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I have spent a lot of time deconstructing "Elephant".  I am still not entirely clear that I have a read on exactly what story he is telling.  Some things are obvious . . . obviously . . . but others leave room for the imagination, which is often a hallmark of great art.

Regardless, it's probably on my Mount Rushmore of great songs.  It's simply brilliant.

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4th&Five

4th&Five 42005

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"I think the original inspiration for this [was] I used to spend a lot of time in this bar downstairs from the apartment that I lived in, in Alabama, before I moved up here to Nashville. Gradually, the regulars would start to disappear. Almost always, it was cancer-related. Over time, there were probably eight or nine people who just would sort of vanish almost right before your very eyes. These were people who weren't having the best life. They were spending a whole lot of hours sitting at a bar, but I think I got that idea. I imagined a couple of folks who were drinking buddies, nothing more than that, and how their relationship changed when one of them got sick. I've known a lot of people who have gotten cancer and died. I think everybody has at this point in time, but those two folks aren't necessarily people who exist in reality."

 

Well, I didn’t want to write about cancer as much as the relationship. I think that that’s a big part of that song. Because there’s not a whole lot that can be said about cancer. But there are infinite details about human relationships. So, you focus more on that than the illness.

When you write a tearjerker like “Elephant,” do you know right away how powerful it is? Or is it like being a comedian, where you have to get in front of an audience to know if it works?

Sometimes that’s the case. But not with that song. When that song was done, I knew that the knife was going to be twisted.

It seems like the more I do this, the more able I am to separate myself from the creation of the song. When I finish one, I can listen to it with outside ears a little bit easier than I used to. And I don’t know why that is. Maybe it’s because I’ve written a lot of songs now.

With that song in particular, I wrote it in a hotel room on my night off, and when it was done I knew that I had done something that was really heavy. The only way I could explain that, really, is in the same way you know when you hear a song that somebody else wrote and it affects you like that. It affected me separate from the creation of it.

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12623

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a few more DBT recs:
when the pin hits the shell
do it yourself
where the devil don't stay (strongly prefer the isbell version, but it still rocks)
the buford stick
goodbye - love the bass line
the righteous path
darkened flags on the cusp of dawn
guns of umpqua - absolutely chilling

Goodbye is a killer. Best platonic breakup song of all time.
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Pescado_Rojo

Pescado_Rojo 19587

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Probably my favorite DBT show on YouTube. These two shows kicked off the Dirty South tour at the 40 Watt in Athens, Ga. 

Tracklisting:
Where The Devil Don't Stay,
Tornadoes,
The Day John Henry Died,
Puttin' People On The Moon,
Carl Perkins' Cadillac,
Sinkhole,
Never Gonna Change,
Cottonseed,
The Buford Stick,
The Southern Thing,
Decoration Day,
Marry Me,
Goddamn Lonely Love,
Lookout Mountain,
Daddy's Cup,
Danko/ Manuel,
The Living Bubba,
 
    Encore: 

Outfit,
Women Without Whiskey,
Shut Up And Get On The Plane,
Careless,
People Who Died,

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9818

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On 5/21/2021 at 11:29 PM, Etexhorn13 said:

Sorry to break up the circle jerk but is Vincent Neil Emerson a thing in here? I like this dude a lot, and he just came out with a single that to me just gets Texas. Good guitar, fiddle, and accordion too. 
 

 

Yeah, relatively new to him but spinning his stuff a lot lately

Was sitting around the house Friday night with no plans and craving some live music when I came across that he was at Cheatham Street that same night...and realized by the time I got there, the set would be over or damn near it 

damn I was pissed 

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Etexhorn13

Etexhorn13 3098

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16 hours ago, UTexasFight said:

Yeah, relatively new to him but spinning his stuff a lot lately

Was sitting around the house Friday night with no plans and craving some live music when I came across that he was at Cheatham Street that same night...and realized by the time I got there, the set would be over or damn near it 

damn I was pissed 

Over the last year or so I’ve really gotten to liking him. Now that everything is opening up again I’m  gonna try to catch him next time he’s in Houston. 

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Celery Man

Celery Man 21098

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thanks for the DBT recs, playlist created

I nailed the SATs and had a heavy AP courseload, but only had medium good grades in high school. Not terrible, but UT is hard to get into. Anyways, my first semester at Texas was the summer semester immediately after I graduated in 2004, and that was a weird couple of months where I was up there before the rest of the dudes in my band came up. And so that summer semester I was doing what I should have done more of later - branching out with different groups and activities, and I had a "show" on KVRX (streaming) for about 15 seconds. That was kind of a fun experience, especially without doing any actual prep - hitting a few spots, playing Texas music, playing new music, I think there was another box of music you had to pull from occasionally, and then whatever other stuff you wanted to mix in. Both Old 97s "Drag it Up" and DBT "The Dirty South" were new and handy. And some KVRX hipster was telling me about how I needed to check out The Mountain Goats, and I found Spoon, and there was that Recover album with the Magritte album cover. I was just on to Wilco (A Ghost is Born was new), was working back from the new "Good News for People Who Love Bad News" on Modest Mouse and had also been struck by Elliott Smith (XO). And I was trying to play stuff from my own little Houston scene - my own band, Carousel Shy (Walker Lukens is still out there doing it), stuff from my buddy that eventually became The Eastern Sea, which is sadly now mostly defunct I think.

Anyways, that was a weird magical little 3 months and, while I did become a huge Old 97s fan, I didn't follow through with DBT. But I did buy The Dirty South probably the 3rd or 4th time I ever went to Waterloo, and that was one of the albums that was in the changer in the trunk for those constant back and forth trips between Austin and Houston, and man that album is like an old smell just from that time.

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bluto

bluto 4997

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thanks for the DBT recs, playlist created
I nailed the SATs and had a heavy AP courseload, but only had medium good grades in high school. Not terrible, but UT is hard to get into. Anyways, my first semester at Texas was the summer semester immediately after I graduated in 2004, and that was a weird couple of months where I was up there before the rest of the dudes in my band came up. And so that summer semester I was doing what I should have done more of later - branching out with different groups and activities, and I had a "show" on KVRX (streaming) for about 15 seconds. That was kind of a fun experience, especially without doing any actual prep - hitting a few spots, playing Texas music, playing new music, I think there was another box of music you had to pull from occasionally, and then whatever other stuff you wanted to mix in. Both Old 97s "Drag it Up" and DBT "The Dirty South" were new and handy. And some KVRX hipster was telling me about how I needed to check out The Mountain Goats, and I found Spoon, and there was that Recover album with the Magritte album cover. I was just on to Wilco (A Ghost is Born was new), was working back from the new "Good News for People Who Love Bad News" on Modest Mouse and had also been struck by Elliott Smith (XO). And I was trying to play stuff from my own little Houston scene - my own band, Carousel Shy (Walker Lukens is still out there doing it), stuff from my buddy that eventually became The Eastern Sea, which is sadly now mostly defunct I think.
Anyways, that was a weird magical little 3 months and, while I did become a huge Old 97s fan, I didn't follow through with DBT. But I did buy The Dirty South probably the 3rd or 4th time I ever went to Waterloo, and that was one of the albums that was in the changer in the trunk for those constant back and forth trips between Austin and Houston, and man that album is like an old smell just from that time.

Was not expecting a walker lukens mention on here, was just reminiscing about seeing him at some co-op complex party by campus in one of the strangest drunken memories.
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Pablo

Pablo 500

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Went and saw Chris Knight at Main Street Crossing in Tomball tonight.

First time to see him live and thought he put on a great set with his band.

Did an excellent version of North Dakota, sang Enough Rope acoustic and had everyone singing along to Down the River and It Ain't Easy Being Me.

Had a good time at my first show, post-covid.

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Pablo

Pablo 500

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On 5/27/2021 at 3:46 PM, Etexhorn13 said:

Over the last year or so I’ve really gotten to liking him. Now that everything is opening up again I’m  gonna try to catch him next time he’s in Houston. 

I'd love to catch him in Houston, too.  If you hear something let me know.

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