By Stevie Connor.
In 2013, embracing his newfound sobriety, Jason Isbell produced an album of haunting atonement and redemption, the sparse and impressive Southeastern. That same year he married Amanda Shires, a talented fiddler and vocalist who was a key member of the 400 Unit. Southeastern was a smash with critics and a commercial success that introduced Isbell to a new and larger audience.
Jason Isbell's songs are filled with ghosts. They're haunted by spirits both welcome and unwelcome, by the personal and historical legacies that make us who we are. Nowhere is this more evident than on his 2013 breakthrough album Southeastern. Isbell offers confessions, reflections, and promises that confront and make communion with those who have come before and remain with us still. Its twelve tracks represent an extended meditation on the concept articulated by another celebrated southern storyteller, author William Faulkner: "The past is never dead. It isn't even past"
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Southeastern Isbell is set to release a newly remastered version of this now classic album, it will be available everywhere September 29th.
After six years with the Southern rock outfit the Drive-By Truckers, singer and guitarist Jason Isbell left the group in 2007 to pursue a solo career, becoming one of the most successful and respected figures in the alt-country and singer-songwriter communities. While full of Southern grit, Isbell's songs also show off an introspective side and a gift for nuanced storytelling. His early solo efforts, such as 2007's bluesy, punk-infused Sirens of the Ditch, boasted a raw, rootsy flavour filled with youthful swagger.
After coming to terms with a dependence on alcohol and drugs, Isbell's songwriting gained greater depth; 2013's Southeastern, his first album after getting sober, was a major critical commercial success full of self-confessional depth.
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