It's never easy to know how to feel when hard times hit. On one hand, the first instinct that most people have is to recoil and guarantee that basic needs are met first but, if even that proves to be a difficult endeavor, people just start hoping for relief; looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. This is the sort of turmoil that was on Jason Isbell's mind when writing for Here We Rest began because, according to the Alabama-born guitarist, he was inundated with it as he watched events unfold in his proverbial neighborhood. “The mood here has darkened considerably,” says Jason. “There is a real culture around Muscle Shoals, Florence and Sheffield of family, of people taking care of their own. When people lose their ability to do that, their sense of self dissolves. It has a devastating effect on personal relationships, and mine were not immune.”
The characters that populate Here We Rest are wrung out. The ghosts of saddened, confused hopelessness stumble through tracks including “Alabama Pines” (where the song's main character laments, “I don’t even need a name anymore/When no one calls it out, it kinda vanishes away”), “Save It For Sunday” (the most hardened 'Tell someone who cares' number heard in years) and “Tour Of Duty” (which chronicles a veteran's attempts to re-enter society and find a place with the horrors of war still fresh in his mind) and there is no sense of reprieve or overt redemption for any of them, because the story isn't happy – it's just a chronicle of reality, as observed in a place that Isbell loves and feels a lot of empathy for. “I could probably live anywhere, but I love it here,” says Isbell. “This was the first time that I’ve been an adult in my own house, in my own community, [and] I tried more than ever to get out from behind my own eyes and see things through others’ eyes.”
According to the guitarist, some time off from the road also had an effect on the musical sensibilities that shaped this album. This time out, Isbell was able to collaborate with more artists (he played on the latest albums by Justin Townes Earle, Middle Brother, Abby Owens and Coy Bowles), which broadened his ideas about how he could present his own music. “I always felt like certain things, like my guitar playing, had to be perfect, and when I was in the studio environment, I could make sure that it was. But looking back, it might have robbed the music of a certain amount of spontaneity. There’s more out and out rock and roll guitar on this album.” In addition, Jason embraces a more acoustic, more traditional country music sound to a degree that he had been reluctant to in the past. “When you come from Alabama, that country soul music is in the water. I’ve always loved it and been proud of it, but there’s always been this sense of proving that you were capable of more than just that. If I was going to create an album that gave listeners a sense of the place, I felt it was important to let the songs go there if they wanted to.”
Now out and getting glowing critical reviews, Isbell has brought the songs of Here We Rest to Canada with a stop at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern on Sunday, May 22, 2011 before continuing through markets both large and small around the rest of North America before finally ending in Colorado on September 18. If the tenor of the shows resembles that of the album, the tour promises to be something remarkable in a strange way; solemn and cathartic intimate but also exhilarating too. This could be the sort of show that, like the album it promotes, gives a bit of hope to the hopeless.
Artist:
www.jasonisbell.com/
www.myspace.com/jasonisbellmusic
www.facebook.com/jasonisbellmusic
www.twitter.com/#!/jasonisbell
Further Reading:
Ground Control – Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit – Here We Rest [Album]
Album:
Here We Rest is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
