Jason Isbell - Southeastern

Jason Isbell — Southeastern

180-gram vinyl plus album download

Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Rated 458/500!

"Southeastern is easily Isbell's best solo album — his most richly conceived and generously written." — Pitchfork

"The album set a standard for new-age Seventies-inspired singer-songwriters and coronated the Alabama native and his wife and bandmate, Amanda Shires, as the new king and queen of Americana." — Rolling Stone

Jason Isbell, through his career as a member of the Southern rock legends the Drive-By Truckers, fronting his own band the 400 Unit, and as a solo artist, has grown into one of music's most brilliant songwriters in the roots/Americana tradition. Southeastern is a deeply personal effort that has its foundation in his yearslong sobriety and his marriage to fellow musician Amanda Shires.

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 12 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."

By no means is Southeastern a wholly solemn offering. Tracks such as "Stockholm" (with Kim Richey) and "Traveling Alone" (with Amanda Shires) offer laid back tempos and memorable choruses, while "Flying Over Water" and "Super 8" are strong reminders of Isbell's deep roots in rock. The poetic and deeply intimate lyrics are the common thread that runs throughout the album.