IT wasn’t until 2013’s Southeastern that Jason Isbell began to work out who exactly he was writing for. The Georgian had been in the business for a decade – first with the Drive-By Truckers and then as a solo artist, but on Southeastern the newly sober Isbell began to focus on a single imaginary individual and make them his audience. “You can’t write for everybody in the audience because then you get Big Macs,” he explains. “So you write for one person – and that person has to be kind of an asshole, this one imaginary audience member who wants to enjoy the song but has heard an awful lot of them.”
Thus armed, Isbell embarked on the illuminating, Grammy-strewn second half of his career, releasing a string of richly detailed, sometimes painstakingly crafted, albums. This year’s Weathervanes is another triumph, showcasing Isbell’s production skills as well as his songwriting, as he gives his band, the 400 Unit, a little more space and time to enjoy themselves than on previous records. He’s also reissuing Southeastern in a 10th-anniversary edition with the original demos – while continuing to take a stand on social media for his values and beliefs. “When my life started getting easy, that’s when I started to feel I could say these things out loud,” he says. “I couldn’t enjoy my life now if I kept my mouth shut.”
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
DECORATION DAY
NEW WEST, 2003
The 22-year-old Isbell joins the Truckers for their Southern Rock Opera tour and promptly writes the best song on their best album.
I’d written songs and recorded demos for the publishing company at FAME studio in Muscle Shoals but “Outfit” and “Decoration Day” were the first songs I wrote that anybody had heard. I wrote “Decoration Day” on
