If you want to see an argument heat up quickly, ask any Drive-By Truckers fan who the band’s best songwriter is. Many will choose the band’s de facto frontman, Patterson Hood, whose sheer volume of great work sets him apart. Others pull for Mike Cooley, who always makes you want to sing along.
But if you ask me, the best songwriter to take the stage as a Trucker hasn’t penned a song for them in three years.
Since leaving the Truckers in 2007, Greenhill, Ala., native Jason Isbell has managed to rattle off a string of incredible albums, the last two as Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. His most recent work, “Here We Rest,” shows how much he’s grown up since his younger years with the Truckers.
Isbell’s work has always attempted to showcase the lives of individuals who are either going through something difficult or who have some unique story to tell. Even when he was with the Truckers, his song “TVA” told of how the Tennessee Valley Authority affected the life of one present-day man in North Alabama.
On “Here We Rest,” the song “Tour of Duty” tells the story of a man returning home from serving in the military abroad. “I’ve done my tour of duty, now I’m home and I ain’t going nowhere,” he says. Unlike many songs about veterans, though, he doesn’t seem too happy or proud of his service: “All the loneliness and boredom and the work I did in vain… now I’m not the same as I was.”
The song bears the musical trappings of a simple country song, but, as Isbell often does, he turns the Toby Keith “we’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American Way” tradition around. This is a song about a soldier, but he isn’t glorified. All the flaws and psychological effects of war are on display, and they are not pretty.
Isbell’s soldier isn’t the only one returning home on this album, however. “Go It Alone” tells the story of someone finished living life on the road, someone who has decided to give up a life of danger and adventure, and return to something more normal: “It’s realizing just how close I’ve come to death and rearranging accordingly. I’m realizing what I’ve lost and what I’ve left and taking it home to go it alone again.” Maybe this song is about Isbell’s time with the Truckers and his desire to get away from that lifestyle, returning to something simpler. Maybe it’s just a lament for life on the road. Either way, he describes the lifestyle of success in a way most musicians avoid like the plague – he tells it like it is: “In real life these things don’t happen much at all. Too bad we all live the dream.”
Musically, “Go It Alone” breaks from the majority of the other tracks on “Here We Rest.” By and large, the album itself is a subdued, acoustic folk-country album. “Go It Alone,” however, harkens back to the sound Isbell produced when he played with the Truckers. The heavy, slow, grinding guitars call back to the Truckers “Never Gonna Change.”
Home isn’t just where you run when you’re tired of life on the road, though. In “We’ve Met,” Isbell tells the tale of a prodigal son, in a sense, who left his hometown to go see the world. He returns and meets an old friend who doesn’t recognize him, reminding him that they’ve met before. “Dream big, that’s what you used to tell me before I went away,” he says to his old friend. After outlining his complex feelings about leaving home, he acknowledges that his friend has become a part of the town, while he has become a part of the world: “I bet this town is in your blood now, but it didn’t have to be.”
But, no matter how much the narrator has loved his life away from this town, home is where he was meant to be, and leaving it for so long hurts. He tells his friend, “I can tell you don’t remember. I can see it in your face. Should’ve never left this place.”
Although Isbell is still young, he seems to have experience beyond his years, and a strong grasp of what really matters – home. “Here We Rest” seems to signal the death of Isbell’s wild, rambling songwriting phase, and brings him back to his roots. That’s something we can all learn from.
“Here We Rest”
Artist: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit Recording Label: Lightning Rod Number of Tracks: 11 Release Date: April 12 CW Critic’s Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars Bottom line: Jason Isbell grows up and goes home on this record, returning to his musical and lyrical roots.
