Frigid Temps, Cold Hearts and Tornadoes – Four Nights on the Road with Jason Isbell – part 1
Most normal folks go to tropical locales or exotic lands on vacation. Music writers? Well, we follow the music. So, after seeing Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit twice in my adopted home state of Colorado (which really is a vacation itself), I charted a path east through Kansas and south to Tulsa, Oklahoma (one of America’s best mid-sized cities) to see Isbell and Co. twice more. Here’s a round-up of part 1, the first two nights of those four shows (in five nights) featuring the best live band in the business.
May 2 – Mission Ballroom – Denver, CO
Anyone who pays attention to Americana music at all knew that this one would be…tense. Amanda Shires had been slated to open this show (and Red Rocks the following night) long before Isbell filed for divorce from Shires back in mid-December, nearly two months before the split became public knowledge. And, yes, Shires had…thoughts. Comments about Isbell’s teeth, his drinking and even his fidelity peppered the show.
BUT…it was also the best I’ve seen her play in the half-dozen-ish times I’ve been to her shows. She came out on fire with her 2022 scorcher “My Own Galaxy” (with a side of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”), and she continued to impress with selections primarily from her last two records, Take It Like a Man and 2018’s To the Sunset, plus a couple of pointed picks from The Highwomen; the altered lyrics in “Don’t Call Me” – “I always knew there was someone else/Don’t fucking call me” – are going to have listeners picking sides until (unless?) we ever hear the full story. But the fire, and the pain, were real and on full display, even prompting Isbell to remark during his set that Shires’s performance was “one of my very favorites.” It was, in all ways, unforgettable.
More important than the gossip this night was the music, and Isbell and his band delivered. Starting off with the slash-and-burn “When We Were Close” (the song, a highly personal response to the death of Isbell’s one-time partner in substance abuse, Justin Townes Earle, has also been a topic of discussion over the past few weeks) and reaching an early peak with “King of Oklahoma” (which up-levels big-time in a live setting with Isbell and Sadler Vaden trading fierce guitar riffs), the band churned through a majority of the material from last year’s Weathervanes, plus tracks dating back to his pre-sobriety and Drive-By Truckers days. Highlights included the lump-in-your throat “Elephant,” the sing-along “Alabama Pines,” and the teased-all-evening, double-drum “Miles” (giving Chad Gamble a moment and featuring Will Johnson banging the hell out of a gong at the song’s apex). The show closed with Isbell’s now-frequent cover of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” (an apparent audible, replacing “This Ain’t It” on the printed setlist). This song, in all its 80s glory, gives longtime keyboardist Derry deBorja and new bassist Anna Butterss their own moments to shine, and also might indicate that Isbell is also still wrestling with losing his life’s great love. Because no one plays a Cure song out of happiness.
May 3 – Red Rocks Amphitheatre – Morrison, CO
After two years of double May dates at Red Rocks, Isbell shifted his first night to the smaller Mission, leaving tonight’s date the sole show at the world’s greatest outdoor venue. A cool, windy, but tolerable Colorado day turned a bit past chilly after the sun went down. The mood, though, was a little warmer than the previous evening – both Shires and Isbell acknowledged (separately) the difficulty of the situation and the reason they were here – to share music. Shires stuck mainly to her original lyrics (which still contain plenty of bite), and again included her fantastic cover of the John Prine deep cut, “Saddle in the Rain” (Prine was close to the couple, and his loss – to both – is still palpable). Isbell’s set included a couple of switch-ups from the previous night – a beautiful version of “Speed Trap Town” and the Southeastern pairing of “Stockholm” and “Flying Over Water.” Another topic of discussion among Isbell fans – which love songs would survive the break-up – had both predictable and surprising answers. “Cover Me Up” ain’t goin’ anywhere – it was featured toward the end of all four of these shows. And I think most of us have made peace with the fact that we won’t hear “Flagship” again – a song that Isbell has only played when Shires is on tour with him (and that she had a pointed retort to in 2022’s “Fault Lines”) But the pleasant surprise here is the continued inclusion of “If We Were Vampires.” It also made the cut in all four shows, and even though it’s a deeply personal account of what the couple once had (“Maybe we’ll get 40 years together” – somehow – cuts even more deeply now), it’s oddly comforting to know that listeners new to Jason Isbell will still get to experience this non-traditional love song live for the first time.
To be continued here: Show Review: Jason Isbell Tour (part 2) Cain’s Ballroom
Find tour dates and more info here: http://www.jasonisbell.com
Enjoy our previous coverage here: Show Review: Jason Isbell at Brown’s Island in Richmond in August