By River Bryan
“There’s something about sad songs,” Jason Isbell announced to the crowd at the ACL Moody Theater on Thursday. “When they’re played loud, they’re less sad.”
Flanked by backing band The 400 Unit, Isbell kicked off a weekend residency at the Moody Theater that doubles as a promotion for his latest LP, Foxes In The Snow. Jumpstarting their US and Australia tour from the weekend, Isbell notes the night as a “fitting start,” given his relationship with the city and venue.
Foxes In The Snow, in part a concept album that meditates on both heartache and new beginnings, is a stripped-down shift from Isbell’s forte in mosaics of roots, country, folk, rock, and all in-between. The album’s intimate and skeletal embrace of personal tragedy and sorrow is likened to Joni Mitchell’s Blue, with the added undercurrent of age and a determination to grow beyond. Despite this, Isbell is thorough in livening the concert’s tone through more expectantly lush and upbeat arrangements of his freshest songs as well as an even mix of vibrant material created alongside the 400 Unit, namely 2023’s Weathervanes, which earned Isbell his 6th Grammy award.
This pays off through a satisfying setlist that resists any singular theme and enables Isbell’s chemistry with the band to flow freely throughout the performance. Hopping from a refreshing bluegrass spin on “Bury Me,” to Foxes in the Snow’s mournful title track, to the sunny strength of “Hope The High Road,” Isbell committedly delivers notes of folk, bluegrass, folk rock,
country rock, and jam rock which revolve along with the instruments that are frequently swapped throughout the evening. Isbell himself is a charged and commanding performer with a particular affinity for jokes and playing reciprocally with his bandmates, recalling an era of group-emphasis within the country rock zeitgeist that preceded him by several decades.
Embodying a characteristic marriage to live music tradition along the lines of Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, Isbell has become something of a musical icon in the city of Austin, as well as a torch-wielder in the company of Ryan Adams, Sturgill Simpson, and Kacey Musgraves who generationally further the pull to rustic instrumentation and a more soulful, scaled-back songwriting style. Having turned 46 in February, Isbell indicates through his durable relationship with performing no signs of cooling down but rather a continued promise to evolve, explore, and,
of course, play. A bona fide roots metamorphose, he demonstrates throughout his evening onstage not only a love of all sounds of the south, but a dutiful contribution to their longevity.
For more information on Jason Isbell’s 2025 tour, An Evening With Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, please click here. You can also listen to Isbell’s newest LP, Foxes In The Snow, anywhere music is available.