Jason Isbell, Concorde 2, Brighton, gig review: Bleak vignettes of Southeastern American lives
Isbell’s songs are more often domestic than Drive-By Truckers’ panoramas of Southern pride and infamy
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Top 10 albums don’t mean what they used to, but Jason Isbell landing there in the US with Something More Than Free still startles. His fifth solo album confirms his commercial outdistancing of the fine band he was in for six years, the Drive-By Truckers, but his songs work similarly. They are bleak, defiant, sympathetic vignettes of Southeastern American lives. This first night of a UK tour feels like a novel more than a rock’n’roll show, imperceptibly sinking its hooks in with accumulated human detail, till you’re facing something true.
Isbell’s songs are more often domestic than Drive-By Truckers’ panoramas of Southern pride and infamy. Sober since 2012 (confirmed to cheers during “Cover Me Up”) and married with a new child, he homes in most effectively on the bedroom and the hospital ward. The cancer conversations of the stripped-down “Elephant” conclude, “There’s one thing that’s real clear to me/ No one dies with dignity.” But his old band’s “Never Gonna Change” lets his new one, the 400 Unit, surge with slow-burning force, and insist on dignity anyway. In support, Tulsa, Oklahoma’s John Moreland added further cracked-voice varieties of lovelorn dismay.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments