You know, I think I can actually go in the studio and not take my ego in there with me so much. This time as I was writing the songs, I thought to myself, I think I can do this without screwing it up. When I got sober 11 years ago, I thought it would be a good idea to turn over some control of that part of my work so I could just do my job - you know, write the songs, bring them in and say, tell me what to do. And, you know, I loved working with Dave. ISBELL: We worked with Dave Cobb on the last four records, I think. What was different about that experience for you in the day-to-day compared to other albums? JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT: (Singing) She used to make me feel like the king of Oklahoma, but nothing makes me feel like much of nothing anymore.ĭETROW: You produced this album entirely yourself. ISBELL: I try not to have a finished product in mind when I start. It's not all that different from a crossword puzzle because you have a certain amount of space that you have to get a detail into. But you're also trying to make something that's really singable, something that works as a song. You're trying to tell the story, and you're trying to paint this picture that people can visualize. ISBELL: It's sort of like you're doing three jobs at once. Doctor took a quick look, and I got out the checkbook and left with a pocket full of pills. JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT: (Singing) I was emptying my bladder on a 20-foot ladder - should have climbed down and found myself some shade. And I'll try to find the right detail so we get sort of an overview of that character, and then I'll just follow him around - you know? - and see what he does. ISBELL: For me, I will start with a character. You hear the story of this guy with a serious opioid addiction, what he's doing to feed it, how he got there. And it was really great for the songwriting process.ĭETROW: That's one of the songs I want to talk about because that's such a great example of that classic storytelling song. And I spent a lot of time either on my own or just sort of bumming around Bartlesville, Okla. And, you know, I was exposed to a lot of people that I didn't know, people that I didn't see every day. JASON ISBELL: I try to write with this sort of sense of place just because it's a good way to start. JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT: (Singing) Molly don't believe me, says she's going to leave me. He even wrote a song called "King Of Oklahoma." Earlier this week, he told me he wrote a lot of his new album during the downtime he had on set in Oklahoma. (SOUNDBITE OF JASON ISBELL THE 400 UNIT SONG, "KING OF OKLAHOMA")ĭETROW: Jason Isbell is known for writing songs with cinematic detail and with vivid characters. In October, he'll make his debut as an actor in a feature film in the Martin Scorsese drama "Killers Of The Flower Moon." That's not the only movie in Isbell's life. There's a young man crying with a cowboy hat.ĭETROW: He and his band, The 400 Unit, have just released a new album, "Weathervanes." And a few months ago, HBO aired a documentary just showing how intense the making of their last record was. JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT: (Singing) There's a warm wind blowing through the laundromat. Time magazine included it in their unranked 2006 list of the 100 greatest albums.Jason Isbell has a lot going on this year. The magazine also ranked the album number 45 in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album includes many of The Band’s best-known and critically acclaimed songs, including “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” which Rolling Stone named the 249th greatest song of all time. According to Robbie Robertson, the location was chosen to give the songs a Basement Tapes–like feel in what was termed “a clubhouse concept.” It was recorded in the pool house of a home rented by the group in the Hollywood Hills which was once owned by Judy Garland, Wally Cox and, at the time the group worked there, Sammy Davis, Jr. Released on the 22nd September, 1969, the eponymous second studio effort by The Band is a concept album, with the songs focusing on people, places and traditions associated with an older version of Americana.
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