The Andrew Extravaganza

In three excellent albums with the Drive-By Truckers, Jason Isbell managed to get eight of his songs recorded and released. From my uninformed perspective as a fan, that had to be the biggest reason for his departure from the band this past spring (although a divorce from DBT bass player Shonna Tucker couldn't have helped things). Despite his songwriting skills, which rival that of Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood, and despite his guitar playing prowess--he was easily the best player in the band, the fact remains that his status in the band could never match that of Hood and Cooley, the founding members. Isbell joined during the tour in support of Southern Rock Opera after third guitarist Rob Malone quit mid-tour. One interview I saw somewhere quoted Patterson Hood as saying Isbell's presence extended the life of the band about three years, so he played a key role, but certainly came third in the pecking order when it came to getting his songs released.

That inevitable frustration led to a solo project. When you're in a band that tours as much as the Truckers, spare time in a studio must be hard to come by because that project has taken four years to see the light of day. Since it was recorded during his tenure with DBT, Jason Isbell's debut solo album, Sirens of the Ditch, has a lot of DBT involvement and Patterson Hood is credited as a co-producer on many of the songs. But it doesn't sound much like a Drive-By Truckers album, Isbell quite clearly sought to explore a wide range of sounds. Before I discuss Sirens of the Ditch any further, let me first list Isbell's songs from the three DBT albums (you can click on the links to hear selected audio [not anymore, audio removed to save space]):

That's an impressive body of work; throw in a couple of filler songs and you have a critically acclaimed album, but one that skews a bit softer than the standard DBT fare.

Sirens of the Ditch was recorded at FAME Studios in Muscles Shoals, Alabama, the recording site for many legendary musicians of genres from country to soul to rock. I think it was an interview with the Onion A/V Club where Jason says he made an effort to try and capture all of those sounds. The result of that effort doesn't quite match his best efforts with DBT, but for all its diversity in style, the album is consistently good and does a good job establishing Isbell as a unique musician that can't be lumped in with Cooley and Hood anymore.

I'm not going to go track by track or anything, but here are a few of my early favorites:

Isbell's slower songs from The Dirty South: Goddamn Lonely Love and Danko/Manuel are two of the most played songs on my iPod, so I'm not surprised that I have gravitated toward similar songs after my initial four or five listens to the album. The bluesy Hurricanes and Hand Grenades covers similar ground as Goddamn Lonely Love, a sad bastard musician on the road looking to drown his sorrows in booze (the title comes from the two famed tourist drinks of New Orleans).

The piano driven Chicago Promenade is a reflection on the death of his grandfather. It's straightforward, light sounding, and lacking a chorus, it flies right by.

Down in a Hole uses bass player David Hood (Patterson's father) of the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and legendary keyboardist Spooner Oldham on the B-3 organ to recreate the swampy Muscle Shoals sound. With its Southern Gothic subject matter, this song would fit lyrically on any Drive-By Truckers album.

Then there's the beautifully written Dress Blues, a song written about a guy from Isbell's tiny hometown of Greenhill, Alabama who joined the Marines and died in Iraq. Below is a good performance from a 2006 show at Stubb's BBQ in Austin.

To sum it up: this is a solid first album that shows Isbell has a bright future as a solo artist. The upside of his departure from DBT is that the new Drive-By Truckers album is reportedly going to be heavy on Mike Cooley songs, and for sure that is excellent news because the man is a bad ass.