Road Tripping, Nashville Style

My wife and I returned Tuesday from a long weekend in Nashville. The primary object of the trip was to see the great Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit at the legendary Ryman Auditorium. Our current thinking is that we are going to try to see some of the seminal music venues around the country. The Ryman is the first in this endeavor; we'll see if it continues, but here's to trying!

Jason Isbell is a singer-songwriter in the country-rock vein. He did some time with the Drive-By Truckers before drinking issues forced him to leave. Thankfully, for him as a person and for us as music lovers, Jason cleaned up and has become one of the best artists around.

I said country-rock, but that's such a broad and potentially inaccurate generalization. If you saw A Star Is Born you heard one of his songs (the great "Maybe It's Time") and you get an idea of the kind of artist he is. Roots leaning, but able to rock with the best of them. But his biggest strength, and he has many, is his songwriting. He's one of the best around. His latest record, The Nashville Sound, has one of the most beautiful love songs written, though with one of the silliest titles. "If We Were Vampires" is not just about love but about the inevitability of loss, that our time on Earth will run out, and that we should make the most of every moment we have been gifted.

It's knowing that this can't go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we'll get forty years together
But one day I'll be gone
Or one day you'll be gone

It's kind of devastating in how close it hits. Especially because he sings it with his wife, the equally talented Amanda Shires.

Let's give it a listen:


Jason is great at balancing delicate songs with rocking songs. And he isn't afraid of owning up to his politics. At the show he took a moment to encourage us all to vote, that every vote matters, and it certainly mattered in the recent Senate race in his home state of Alabama, where he was very vocal and supportive of the eventual winner.

He's one of my favorite artists. I encourage everybody to enjoy his music.

The rest of the Nashville trip was wonderful. We stayed at a nice hotel very close to the Ryman. Which also meant we were close to the chaos of Broadway Avenue and all the bars and music venues down there. bands are playing in them damn near 24 hours a day it seems. Adding to the craziness are party buses, pedal-bars, and other assorted vehicles with people in varying states of inebriation. Because I am an old fuddy-duddy we didn't partake in too much of the local flavor, but we certainly got to appreciate it. We visited the Johnny Cash Museum, we visited Jack White's Third Man Records, where I picked up some sweet special edition vinyl. We drove to Nashville so it was two long days of nearly 10 hours in the car each way. But it was worth it. A definite good time.