FLIRTING WITH DANGER Emily Haines, James Shaw and their band of indie-rock survivors return with a pair of albums that blur the line between boisterous pop and lo-fi introspection BY EMILY ZEMLER 32 | OCTOBER_NOVEMBER 2015 | WWW.RELIX.COM JASON ISBELL A HARD-WROUGHT FREEDOM Nashville’s great, alternative hope finds salvation and sobriety, thanks to his new album and one wild and crazy guy. BY ROB SLATER PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID MCCLISTER IT’S EARLY AFTERNOON ON A LATE his grandfather on more traditional summer day and Jason Isbell has every acoustic instruments, and then jumps to right to be a bit anxious. The 36-year-old his introduction to rock-and-roll music, Green Hill, Ala., native will spend most of thanks to his parents’ record bin. the day talking about his latest album “They are very young, comparatively,” Something More Than Free, and its he says of his mother and father, who seemingly improbable ascension to No. 1 are still in their mid-50s. “They were on the Billboard Rock, Folk and Country listening to a lot of arena rock and had charts. “I’m doing a lot of interviews a big record collection. When I was today,” he says with a fair amount of growing up, I listened to a lot of Queen reluctance in his voice. He’s clearly excited and Cream, Bad Company.” and happy to finally be what he calls From the start, Isbell had the same “good busy,” but his heart is also with his type of hardworking, humble attitude wife and musical partner, Amanda Shires, that he brings to his craft today—playing who will give birth to their baby girl just local gigs around Alabama for $75 a a few days later on Sept. 1. night. He says he had “a little bit of local Isbell, an immensely talented singer, success,” but soon received the break songwriter and guitarist, who also has that all songwriters dream of when FAME the dubious distinction of being the rare Recording Studios put him on retainer musician to party too hard for even the as a session musician and songwriter. Drive-By Truckers, is in the midst of Isbell’s sound could be described as a both a creative renaissance and personal swirl of rock, country and folk, sprinkled rebirth. His recent success has allowed with a Muscle Shoals topping, and that him to truly step out of the spotlight of final ingredient came during his time his former band for the first time in his at FAME—the recording studio that sometimes-turbulent career, but it has welcomed Aretha Franklin, Wilson also made him look back on his personal Pickett and Duane Allman. Isbell quit journey. As he humbly talks about his playing local gigs and dug into the FAME current rule over the alternative-country experience, all at the ripe age of 20 years music world, he makes a point to trace old. As he says: “I grew up with that his musical interests to his grandfather, music as much as anything else.” an Alabama Pentecostal preacher. He recalls a story from FAME’s Rick “I spent a lot of my time with him, Hall about Duane Allman camping out rather than any kind of day care,” he reflects. in the parking lot near the studio before “He would teach me how to play guitar being invited in to play on Wilson and mandolin. Usually, I’d play guitar and Pickett’s latest single. The conversation accompany him, and he would play fiddle quickly skips to Isbell’s various Allman or banjo or mandolin. That was his way Brothers-related experiences. He talks of bonding with me, spending time with about cleaning out a garage at FAME and me and also keeping me out of trouble.” finding pedals that belonged to Gregg Isbell speaks with a newfound sense of and Duane Allman, as well as discovering purpose, rarely wasting a single word. He backup copies to some of the Brothers’ recounts those days tinkering alongside recordings, both studio and live. Isbell OCTOBER_NOVEMBER 2015 | WWW.RELIX.COM | 33 “It was a really difficult situation, day in and day out,” Isbell says of playing in Drive-By Truckers with his ex-wife. “So I drank way more than I should toward the end.” “It became obvious that she depended on me and needed me to be in the world, and so did my parents and the people I made music with. I realized that gradually, and then finally decided that it was time to quit.” Isbell is quick to point out that it took him years of self-destructive behavior to reach this awakening. He believes that the love shown by those close to him is what ultimately brought him to his senses. “When you see that, you say, ‘Well I guess I owe it to them to try to quit being an asshole, to try to get my shit together.’” Contrary to most reports at the time, Isbell says there wasn’t really an intervention, but rather a push from Shires, his family members and his band, as well as another musician who recently completed his own quest to become sober—Ryan Adams. Isbell entered rehab at Cumberland Heights in Nashville in 2012, with one of his guitars in tow, and he would play in a practice room at the facility. “If you were a professional also has an interesting take that he expands Isbell fell victim to the rock-and-roll musician, you could go in there for an on during his appearance on Marc Maron’s lifestyle, admitting that “it probably hour every week and play a guitar, and WTF podcast—he doesn’t consider the would have happened to just about that was huge for me,” he explains. Allmans to be “Southern rock.” anybody, to tell you the truth.” That isn’t When Isbell completed his program “When you say Southern rock, to me, an excuse as much as it is a fact. and sobered up, he quickly returned to that means Lynyrd Skynyrd,” he says To make matters worse, Isbell was the road and started playing music. Those confidently. Isbell notes that the Allmans married to then-bassist Shonna Tucker. first few tours, he says, were pivotal. Of are more improvisational, explaining, “The After they divorced and remained in the note, he teamed up with Adams during Allmans were trying to find something— group together, Isbell says his drinking the singer-songwriter’s first solo acoustic they were on a bit of a musical journey, and and drug use “got heavy.” He adds, “It was outing since he veered off the road to battle that was really something that Southern a really difficult situation, day in and day his Meniere’s disease in 2009. Isbell calls rock didn’t necessarily embrace. That out, so I drank way more than I should Adams a “really good influence” on him. was more of an improvisational, sort of toward the end.” “He still seems like he’s really living a Grateful Dead influence.” In 2007, the Truckers fired Isbell, and very rock-and-roll lifestyle, even though So how did the Allmans find that his alcohol and drug addiction worsened. he’s not getting fucked up anymore,” improvisational spirit deep in the heart of He released his first solo record, Sirens Isbell explains. “For me to see that and an area that didn’t necessarily embrace it? of the Ditch, but his personal problems see that you could still be an effective “Mushrooms,” Isbell says with a laugh. persisted. person and still get a lot of enjoyment “Magical mushrooms that grew out of “There were terrible nights for me and out of your life without having to resort cow shit in Macon, Ga. That’s how they everybody around me. I went to jail a few to alcohol was really important.” found it.” times, but where I grew up, that’s not a Isbell admits that his run with Adams Isbell is known for such tangents, even big deal.” was a “trial by fire” since he hadn’t played when he is in the middle of promoting Isbell insists that there wasn’t a “rock a sober show since he was a teenager. his own music. He is, as they say in the bottom”-type moment, but rather a He once again had to become a student sports world, a “student of the game” powerful realization that he had reasons of the game, soaking in everything Adams with his ability to dig out stories, facts to live. “It’s really hard for people to had to offer. or other anecdotes about whatever band kick an addiction unless they feel it is “How he explained it to me was: ‘If or genre you may be inquiring about. necessary,” he explains, citing his now- you’re having trouble out there when His knowledge of the music industry and wife Amanda Shires as a catalyst for his you’re by yourself in this big theater, just music history is a large part of his story, current state of sobriety. imagine that you’re playing to five people and what makes him tick. around you and make an imaginary circle,’” Isbell says. “It was hard for me to be “THE BOOZING STARTED AS SOON AS I “ There were terrible onstage sober at first—that was really got in the band with those guys,” Isbell nights for me and unnerving because all those nerves come reflects on his time in his first “real” band, back that you have been quieting with Drive-By Truckers.