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For New Disc, Isbell Keeps On Truckin'

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By CURTIS ROSS

cross@tampatrib.com

Published: March 12, 2009

Updated:

Jason Isbell's solo debut, 2007's "Sirens of the Ditch," showed plenty of promise but seemed tentative, as if Isbell were still getting his bearings after leaving Drive-By Truckers that same year.

A smoking hot set at Crowbar in Ybor City that summer suggested better things were to come, and "Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit" makes good on that promise.

Isbell has crafted a bonafide album - one that, as good as the individual cuts are, is far better than the sum of its parts.

Isbell's stories are peopled by the same blue-collar, or no-collar, anti-heroes of his Drive-By Truckers tunes, but there's more mystery here, more crucial details left to the imagination. Instead, he fills the gaps with musical touches. The acoustic guitar that ascends as Isbell's voice descends at the end of the chorus of "Sunstroke" tells you as much as do any of the lyrics.

A huge opportunity will be missed if either Solomon Burke or Bettye Lavette doesn't cover "No Choice in the Matter," as fine a piece of Southern soul as has been written since that genre's heyday. "Good" effortlessly wipes the floor with any alt-rock guitar band you'd care to mention. "Cigarettes and Wine" is tight and economical and still somehow epic.

As good a lyricist as Isbell is, he knows when to zip it and let the riff have the spotlight as he does on the long fadeout of "The Last Song I Will Write."

This disc firmly establishes Isbell as one of rock's strongest voices.

Download this: "Sunstroke"

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