NEW YORK ā Jason Isbell had big plans for this summer, between a new album specifically designed to introduce his music to a wider audience and a schedule that had him onstage most nights from May to September.
Like millions of others, many of Isbell's dreams are on hold because of the coronavirus.
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So on a recent evening, he and wife Amanda Shires performed his new songs for an Internet audience at a near-empty Nashville club. Stray claps sounded like they came from a handful of janitors sweeping up in the back.
āIt wasn't a new experience,ā said Isbell, recalling a night in State College, Pennsylvania, where his only spectators were the opening band and bar employees.
But it's one that rightfully belongs in the rear-view mirror. The 2013 breakthrough album āSoutheasternā established Isbell as an important new voice and two vibrant follow-ups proved that wasn't a fluke. With Lucinda Williams and t he late John Prine, Isbell formed a holy trinity for fans of Americana music.
Labels can be cages, though, ones didn't limit forebears like Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty. They were rock stars whose music topped the pop charts. Isbell has similar lofty ambitions and, longtime producer Dave Cobb believes, the talent to back it up.
Those ambitions nearly cost Cobb his job.
āYou always want to reach people you haven't reached before,ā Isbell explained. His last few albums effectively captured Isbell and his band, the 400 Unit, as if they played live in a room together. But Isbell wanted production touches that could help the disc āReunionsā appeal to people who might not listen to Americana music.
He considered hiring another producer, but first asked Cobb if he'd be willing to experiment more.
Cobb was ready. āI don't want to be making the same record over and over and over again,ā he said.
The touches were subtle: some synthesizers here and there, a guitar that occasionally recalls Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler. The song āOnly Childrenā sounds like it has a celestial choir in the background.
Isbell's carefully-crafted songs are still the backbone. āReunionsā topped Billboard's country music chart on its first week of release, and was No. 9 on the pop chart.
His songs handle emotions complex and universal, from his life and others. āSt. Peter's Autographā is about his difficulty dealing with his wife's grief over the death of her friend. In āLetting You Go,ā he tries to write about a father walking his daughter down the aisle while avoiding cheap sentiment.
Isbell has alluded in song to the turning point in his life ā getting sober eight years ago ā but never in the head-on manner he does with āIt Gets Easier.ā
āI felt like I had a certain perspective on it that I hadn't had before,ā he said. āI'm sure that perspective will change with time. I felt a little bit safer doing that and a little bit more qualified.ā
Before, he was reluctant to revisit the man he was before, a self-reckoning necessary to write a line like ālast night I let myself remember times I forgot a woman's name.ā
It may get easier, he concludes, but it never gets easy.
Isbell's inability to acknowledge the pressure that he felt while songwriting caused such conflict with Shires that, for 10 days, she moved out of their house and into a nearby hotel. They talked about the difficulties for an article in The New York Times that felt, in part, like an uncomfortable peek into a marriage counseling session.
Too much information?
āI didn't regret saying any of those things,ā Isbell said. āMy brand is the truth, for lack of a better term. People who are interested in following my story and my music are interested in honesty, so I'll give it to āem. If Iām living in a way where I think I should hide things from people, then maybe I should change the way I'm living.ā
Two songs ā āWhat Have I Done to Helpā and āBe Afraidā ā address his feelings about being more socially active, the former with guilt as the overriding emotion and the latter with anger.
āBe Afraidā cites the āshut up and singā pressure that many artists face, a reference to the reaction that torpedoed the Dixie Chicks' career when they spoke out against former President George W. Bush.
Isbell, a progressive with no interest in seeing Trump re-elected, will likely face those issues himself in an election year.
āIt's going to take some thought,ā he said. āBut, hey, we've got time to sit around and think about it right now.ā
Resuming life for Isbell isn't a matter of feeling comfortable enough to drive to an office, of course. No one knows when he'll be allowed to gather an audience to see him play, or when his fans will feel comfortable.
āThere could be people out there playing shows long before I'm going to be out there playing shows, because I'm not going to go out there until it's an overall benefit to society rather than a threat,ā he said.