Jason Isbell - Interview

Drive-By Truckers’ Jason Isbell leaves the band after six years to hit the road with his debut solo album, Sirens Of The Ditch, but he doesn’t leave his former band mates or influences too far behind. The record was co-produced by DBT’s Patterson Hood and musicians appearing on it include Hood and his father David Hood, DBT’s Shonna Tucker (bass), Brad Morgan (drums), Spooner Oldham, John Neff and others. Recorded over the past four years at FAME Studios in Isbell’s Muscle Shoals, Alabama hometown, Sirens Of The Ditch draws on the region’s infamous soul roots and incorporates elements of rock and blues into a heartfelt mix of songs that favor piano and pedal steel over buzzing guitars. Jason Isbell talked to me about Sirens Of The Ditch.

You had been a Drive-By Truckers front man for the past six years. Can you talk about your thinking going into Sirens Of The Ditch?

It was important for me to make an album that sounded different from the Drive-By Truckers' work, but I also wanted to stay true to the spirit of what we were doing in that band. We always tried to be honest with our audience. We tried to write about the things we knew on a personal basis, and that gave our work a southern accent. I feel like I have the same job now. I just work with different people.

Will you talk about some new songs, what you're writing about lyrically?

Since this record has been finished, I've been writing songs that are a bit more introspective. I feel like "Dress Blues" dealt with the outside world about as well as anything I've written, and there's been a lot of change in my life this year, so lately I'm focusing on my personal battles. I still have room in these songs for my family, and anything that makes for a good story is fair game, but I have a lot to think about these days. I write songs primarily to show myself how I feel.

How about a song on the record musically?

Musically I'm very fond of “Chicago Promenade'.” I think the simplicity of the chord progression and the movement in the rhythm section fits very well with the lyric. Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) helped a lot on that one by suggesting that the drums be in half time when they entered the song. That really added an emotional angle that a straight 4/4 beat wouldn't have accomplished. The layered guitars on the outro also give me a really good feeling.

This record was a few years in the making and was influenced by your life growing up in Alabama and the Muscle Shoals sound. Will you describe that musical background?

I was heavily influenced by players like David Hood, Spooner Oldham, Scott Boyer, Mike Dillon, and Kelvin Holly when I was a teenager. These guys were very open to the new generation of Muscle Shoals musicians, and they told a lot of stories. To me, their presence and character were more important than even the music they'd made in the past. Obviously I love many of the recordings that came out of my hometown, but knowing these people on a personal level taught me a great deal about spending your life in this world.

Jason Isbell plays Bowery Ballroom on October 10.

Watch Jason perform "Dress Blues."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly.