JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT : GEORGIA BLUE

  1. Nightswimming (With Béla Fleck & Chris Thil)
  2. Honeysuckle Blue (With Sadler Vaden)
  3. It's A Man's Man's Man's World (With Brittney Spencer)
  4. Cross Bones Style (With Amanda Shires)
  5. The Truth (With Adia Victoria)
  6. I've Been Loving You Too Long
  7. Sometimes Salvation (With Steve Gorman)
  8. Kid Fears (With Brandi Carlile & Julien Baker)
  9. Reverse
  10. Midnight Train To Georgia (With Brittney Spencer, John Paul White)
  11. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed (With Peter Levin)
  12. I'm Through
  13. Driver 8 (With John Paul White)

Label : Southeastern Records

Release Date : November 26, 2021

Length : 67:51

Review (AllMusic) : A promise is a promise, and if you make one in public, people will expect you to live up to it. During the heat of the 2020 presidential campaign, confirmed Democrat Jason Isbell pledged that if Joe Biden won the White House and carried Georgia, he would cut an album paying homage to artists and songwriters from the Peach State (not traditionally a blue state), with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. Nine months into the Biden administration, Isbell has delivered the record he promised, and 2021's Georgia Blue feels more substantive than one might expect. The genesis of the LP may have been founded on a whim, but it's also a set that gives a gifted songwriter a chance to tip his hat to other artists he admires, as well as offering a long look into the diverse sounds and styles that helped shape his musical mind. No one is likely to be surprised that R.E.M. makes the set list, not once but twice with acoustic reworkings of "Driver 8" and "Nightswimming" (the latter featuring Béla Fleck and Chris Thile), but the rip-roaring rock of Drivin' N' Cryin's "Honeysuckle Blue," the low-key blues of Precious Bryant's "The Truth" (with Adia Victoria on lead vocals), and the propulsive indie rock of Now It's Overhead's "Reverse" might not seem so obvious to casual observers. Isbell puts his heart, soul, and guts into every performance here, and even old reliables like "Midnight Train to Georgia," "I've Been Loving You Too Long," and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" connect in fresh ways, largely due to the commitment of Isbell and his collaborators, and their understanding of what makes these songs special. The 12-minute stroll through the Allman Brothers Band's "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" is the album's sole misfire, a respectful interpretation that doesn't capture the ineffable spark of the At Fillmore East recording (which was more about performance than songcraft) and loses its way before it's done. The covers album is usually a tricky prospect for an artist, especially one best known for their songwriting, but Georgia Blue is one that succeeds because these are tunes Jason Isbell clearly cares about as much as anything that came from his own pen. The love and fire on display here confirm what his best work has always shown -- he's not just a fine songwriter, he's a top-shelf musician who lives for this stuff, and it's a pleasure to hear him dig into this material. (Money raised by this album will be donated to the Black Voters Matter Fund, the political action group Fair Fight, and the social justice organization Georgia STAND-UP.)

Review (Written In Music) : Tijdens de presidentsverkiezingen van 2020 haalden de Democraten de twee senaatzitjes van Georgia binnen, een resultaat dat het verdere verloop bepaalde en zo kleurde de Peach State terug blauw. Dat werd ook in het plaatselijke muzikantenmilieu gevierd. Voormalige Drive-By Trucker Jason Isbell toont zijn dankbaarheid, samen met The Unit 400 en gastmuzikanten zette hij een coverproject op met uitsluitend in Georgia gewortelde muzikale bijdragen. De staat in het Diepe Zuiden van de VS is van oudsher een muzikaal mekka. ''Georgia On My Mind", zong Ray Charles destijds niet toevallig de blinde pianist was eveneens als James Brown afkomstig uit de Peach State en coverde eveneens de song die Stuart Gorrell voor Hoagy Carmichael's zus Georgia in 1930 bedacht, nadien volgden talloze interpretaties die focussen op de staat Georgia en eind jaren zeventig kwam de erkenning als officiële staatshymne. Otis Redding en Gladys Knight bezongen eveneens hun oorspronkelijke thuishaven, The Black Crowes zetten de door The Allman Brothers Band en Lynyrd Skynyrd geïntroduceerde southernrock traditie verder in Atlanta en vanuit Athens veroverde R.E.M. de wereld. Jason Isbell verzeilde evenals de overige leden van Drive-By Truckers vanuit Alabama in Athens en selecteerde twee songs uit het oeuvre van R.E.M. In de openingstrack Nightswimming wordt de mandoline van Chris Thile van Nickel Creek geflankeerd door de banjo van Béla Fleck en Driver 8 uit de beginperiode van Michael Stipe en kompanen vormt een eveneens akoestisch uitgevoerde afsluiter met John Paul White de helft van het opgedoekte duo Civil Wars. In Honeysuckle Rose van Drivin 'n Cryin, neemt Sadler Vaden, de gitarist van The 400 Unit, die ooit bij Drivin' N Cryin' figureerde het voortouw in een gitaarduel met Isbell. Amanda Shires, Isbell's levenspartner voorziet Cat Power's Cross Bones Style van zang en spookachtige vioolklanken. De gloedvolle interpretatie van I've Been Loving You Too long blijft dicht bij het origineel van Otis Redding. In het van James Brown afkomstige It's a Man's Man's Man's World ondersteunen jankende bluesy snarenlicks de zang van Brittney Spencer. De flamboyante zangeres duikt terug op in Midnight Train To Georgia aan de zijde van J.P. White en dat resulteert in meeslepende countrysoul met respect voor de ongenaakbare versie van Gladys Knight & The Pips. Southernrock mag hier uiteraard niet ontbreken, de uitvoering van Sometimes Salvation moet met Steve Gorman in de rangen nauwelijks onderdoen voor het origineel van The Black Crowes en de lang uitgesponnen Allman Brothers jam In The Memory Of Elisabeth Reed krijgt hier met hulp van toetsenman Peter Levin een fijne reproductie. Zo groeit dit benefiet voor strijdvaardige non-profit organisaties Black Votes Matter, Fair Fight en Georgia Stand Up uit tot meer dan een verdienstelijk nevenproject van Jason Isbell.

Review (Pitchfork) : Jason Isbell floated the idea of Georgia Blue just after Election Day 2020. As the country anxiously awaited the results, Isbell tweeted, "If Biden wins Georgia, I'm gonna make a charity covers album of my favorite Georgia songs." As it happens, Isbell had been toying around with the idea for a while, long enough to create a rough setlist. After Biden took the state, thereby clinching his path to the presidency, that initial clutch of songs was fleshed out by friends and colleagues who were eager to participate: Brandi Carlile, for one, tweeted that she wanted to record the Indigo Girls' "Kid Fears," and John Paul White of the Civil Wars quickly offered his services. While other prospective pairings didn't materialize, Isbell wound up with a rich cast of guests, ranging from legends like bluegrass picker Béla Fleck to emerging stars like singer-songwriter Brittney Spencer. All of the cameos give Georgia Blue the slight air of an old-fashioned tribute album, the kind that blossomed during alternative rock's peak in the 1990s. During that decade, tribute albums showcasing a songwriter, style, or trend for edification, entertainment, or charity were so commonplace they almost formed their own subgenre. The artists covered on Georgia Blue also strengthen the connection to alternative rock's glory days. The album is bookended with two songs by R.E.M., the pride of Athens, Georgia, who also provided college rock's moral compass during the '80s and '90s. R.E.M. is a center of gravity on Georgia Blue, too, as Isbell covers tunes by Drivin' N' Cryin', Vic Chesnutt, and Now It's Overhead, every one of them a former tourmate, peer, or associate of the band. Even the Black Crowes-whose rousing "Sometimes Salvation" is performed with the Crowes' original drummer Steve Gorman-are part of R.E.M.'s orbit, as Chris and Rich Robinson, along with Gorman, cite them as a primary influence. Threaded through the alt-rock covers are songs that feel closer to the traditional definition of Southern music: blues, R&B, soul, and Southern rock. Here, the 400 Unit get to flex their muscles, sounding equally at ease with soulful grooves and jazz-inflected jams. Generally, the older the song, the closer they stick to the original arrangement-but that's not a detriment. Guest vocalist Brittney Spencer enlivens both Gladys Knight & the Pips' "Midnight Train to Georgia" and James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's Man's World," adding new vibrancy to these familiar oldies. Similarly, keyboardist Peter Levin helps give the lengthy version of the Allman Brothers Band's "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" a lively, limber swing, so that it never grows dull over the course of 12 minutes. As good as these renditions are, the emotional heart of Georgia Blue lies in those alternative rock covers, songs where Isbell and the 400 Unit allow themselves some freedom of interpretation. With assistance from Béla Fleck and Chris Thile, Isbell warms and softens R.E.M.'s stark "Nightswimming," pulling off a similar trick with "Driver 8," this time with John Paul White. Isbell's wife and bandmate Amanda Shires gives Cat Power's "Cross Bones Style" a steely strength, while Isbell milks all the melodrama out of Chesnutt's "I'm Through" and Brandi Carlile and Julien Baker turn the melancholic undertow of "Kid Fears" into catharsis. Such emotional bloodletting doesn't necessarily sit easily next to either the roaring "Honeysuckle Blue," a Drivin' N' Cryin' standard here sung by Sadler Vaden, a former member of the band who is now a guitarist in the 400 Unit, or the easy ramble of Adia Victoria's version of Precious Bryant's "The Truth." Yet the shifts in tone and style on Georgia Blue reflect a wide range of human feeling. At its heart, Georgia Blue is a joyful affair but there's sadness lurking in the shadows. Somehow, that's appropriate for an album conceived as a celebration during a time of crisis.