Jason Isbell
Palomino Festival, Saturday July 9th 2022
covering country music’s diversity
rock nyc Top 10 Songs Week Of May 4th, 2015
Some nice songs, some may even last longer than the week, but they are all no match for Jason Isbell’s masterful “24 Frames” , terrific and strange song, about: memory? the speed at which disasters occur? life as a camera in your mind:? Michael Stipes? Losing your religion? Who knows?
That Was The Week Of January 27th, 2014, That Was
With my friend Jahn Xavier, I went to the Allen Room at Lincoln Center and was floored by Jason Isbel’s “American Songbook” set. You can see it for yourself as part of the PBS “Live From Lincoln Center” program when it airs later this year, till then take my word, it was a career defining masterpiece.
10 Songs, Tuesday, February 4th, 2014
12:51 – The Strokes – “Talk to me I’m older” Casablancas requests and it opens the door on what would have their eagerly awaited sophomore album which unlike this textured guitar fuzzy tuneful masterstroke, didn’t live up to exceptions – A
Donna McElroy And Jason Isbell And Dignity
What Donna instinctively knew and what Isbell couldn’t even guess is that you die for other people, you die well to give them hope when there is no hope and the hope you give them is that in the leaving of life you can be as decent and brave, even braver, than in the living of it. Isbell is wrong, you can die with dignity.
10 Songs: Sunday, February 2nd, 2014
Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly) – Burl Ives – Not only was Ives an exquisite singer but this English folk song, dating from the 1700s, is completely timeless; it shoots through over 300 years of nursery rhymes and travelling minstrels completely in tact. Perfection – A+
10 Songs, February 1st, 2014
How Deep Is Your Love – Bee Gees – Exquisitely perfect disco ballad that changed the Gibbs brothers once and for all and the best line? “And you may not think I care for you when you know down inside that I really do” – A+
Jason Isbell At Lincoln Center, Thursday, January 31st, 2014, Reviewed
The set is one of the most perfect things you will ever see. It starts strong and ends stronger. The word is sublime. All the playing, the entire band, is money. But Chad Gamble is remarkable; the tempo is always a touch slow, it always seems to be dragging itself but he holds it down but with power and not with speed, it is like he is playing martial beats on country songs but he isn’t doing that at all.
Active Viewin': rock nyc Concert Picks w-o 1-27-14
With January’s best album under his belt, the Phil Gammage Trio are playing a record release part on Wednesday January 29th at No Malice Palace on 197 East 3rd Street in the village on Wednesday, January 29. Expect harp, bass and blues and Phil’s beautiful baritone.
Hear Ye: what rock nyc is listening to 12-21-13
Anything Could Happen – Ellie Goulding – This is a big song for Ellie, completely addictive with those “wee wee wees” playing in the back of your head long after its over and a chorus of Ellie’s bringing it back home. Huge in the UK – A
Let’s Have a Good Cry – A Dozen Weeper Keepers
On Thursday afternoons, rock nyc has its“Good Cry” meeting, where we discuss our lost loves, crushed dreams, and any terminal illnesses we might have. I once excitedly started the meeting by stating that my son had aced his college final in International Relations and Helen Bach backhanded me from Manhattan to Brooklyn. My jaw hurt, but the pizza was still good
My Top 18 Albums Of 2013: # 14 – Southeastern – Jason Isbell
The band are a touch generic though it sure doesn’t hurt the knockabout “Super 8” ( and the accumulation of stories work themselves into a worldview and while it isn’t a happy one, it is true one, and while it is mostly a bunch of stories and they don’t always end well, they always show people at their most humane.
Hear Ye: What rock nyc Is Listening To 12-18-13
Kiss Me Last – We The Kings – A “Save The Last Dance For Me” for the 21st century and as sweet an idea as pop music can throw up, in a world of black panties, it is so innocent and emo in name, in nature it is pure pop for now teens – A-