Jason Isbell said people who attend his concert are “probably going to be a little bit surprised by how much of a rock concert” they perform.
Isbell and the 400 Unit will be playing their highly acclaimed album “The Nashville Sound” on Saturday at the Griffin Music Hall.
“We’re louder live than we are on the albums for sure, which keeps everybody interested,” Isbell told the News-Times during a phone interview. “It keeps it fun for us and the audience.”
Isbell and the 400 Unit have been together for 10 years, with mostly the same band members. Isbell is also a former member of the Drive-By Truckers band.
When asked who his favorite person to sing or do a duet with, Isbell said his wife, Amanda Shires. Shires, who plays the fiddle, has released solo records and Isbell said she is currently on tour, having recently finished her own album.
Isbell recently performed at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville and said it was one of his “favorite nights.” Isbell played with guests Jerry Douglas, Emmylou Harris, Mac McAnally, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.
Isbell has been around music his whole life.
“My grand-dad was a Pentecostal preacher, so my first exposure to music was gospel music and old country music that he played,” he said. “When I got to my teens, I sort of fell in love with a lot of singer/songwriters and that’s really the direction that I followed for my own music.”
While growing up, some of Isbell’s influences were John Prine, Neal Young, Kris Kristofferson and Jackson Browne. In the ’80s, he listened to a lot of rock music, including Van Halen.
“It’s a strange combination I guess,” he said. “It’s singer/songwriter music with a lot of loud guitars.”
Isbell has many accomplishments in his career, including four Grammy awards “but I think probably to me, the most important thing is that I’ve been able to do music for 17 years now without having to do anything else,” he said.
“That was really my main goal when I started out,” he said. “I just wanted to be able to play music and support my family and not have to worry about going back to the workforce.”
Isbell and Shires have a 2-year-old daughter who goes on tour with him. He plans his tours in advance, “to make sure that I have what I need to be a good dad and a good husband.”
Isbell said he puts his family first and everything else is in service to that. Isbell and his family live on a piece of land about 25 miles from Nashville. He said his daughter has about a dozen chickens that they spend a lot of time taking care of when he isn’t touring.
He said his favorite part about touring is playing shows and that he still enjoys playing all of his band’s songs.
His inspiration for his album “The Nashville Sound” took place when he was paying close attention to the political climate in the country. He said his primary inspiration was to try to explain the world to his daughter through his music.
“I was really trying to make a record of events to record the place that I was in and record the opinions that I had,” he said. “Maybe down the road she could listen back to that and see what kind of person I was when she was little.”
Isbell said he has never been to El Dorado, but has heard of the town and has passed “close by.”
He said to the people of El Dorado to prepare for a rock ‘n’ roll concert Saturday at the Griffin Music Hall. The concert will begin at 8 p.m.
Kaitlyn Rigdon can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].