Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit are set to release their highly anticipated new album, The Nashville Sound, on June 16.
Jason Isbell’s upcoming new album, The Nashville Sound (out June 16), finds the Grammy winner going back to his rock roots alongside his fantastic longtime band, the 400 Unit.
Before going solo, Isbell was best known as a member of the alternative country band the Drive-By Truckers. The Alabama native joined Drive-By Truckers in 2001 as they toured for their third studio album, Southern Rock Opera. After six years of contributing to the band, Isbell left the group to pursue a solo career, releasing his first album, Sirens of the Ditch, in 2007.
The 400 Unit, a group of musicians from Muscle Shoals, Alabama — famed as a recording Mecca responsible for many hits dating back to the 1960s — joined Isbell in 2009 on Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, on 2011’s Here We Rest, and again on 2013’s Southeastern. Now they’re adding another album to their collaboration: The Nashville Sound.
“Even when I was writing, I could always hear the band’s stamp on the finished product,” Isbell says in a press release. “These songs needed more collaboration on the arrangements to make them work, and I felt like the band deserved it after the way they played.”
The album delves into personal themes and showcases Isbell’s honest lyrics with a rock-and-roll edge. Isbell told Rolling Stone Country, “I was just trying to make a record of where my life is and write the best songs I can; it just so happened that almost half of this record were songs that were uptempo and loud.”
As a follow-up to Isbell’s critically acclaimed 2015 Grammy winner, Something More Than Free, it’s an impressive next step in an already impressive career.
For more information on the album and Isbell’s upcoming tour dates, visit his website.
Photography: Danny Clinch