even though he is from alabama, for various reasons jason isbell decided to do an album dedicated to artists from the peach state, and invited a slew of musicians to help give it a diverse approach. with his standard recording and touring band, the 400 hundred unit (named after a nickname for a pychiatric ward in florence, alabama), they tackle many genres and succeed at most.

they kick off with r.e.m.’s ‘night swimming’, with bluegrass artists bela fleck on banjo and chris thile on mandolin. up and coming vocalist brittney spencer gives an interesting twist to james brown’s ‘it’s a man’s man’s man’s world’.

jason does his best to do otis redding’s ‘i’ve been loving you too long’. ‘sometimes salvation’, a black crowes standard, features their original drummer steve gorman.

indigo girls’ ‘kid fears’ is presented by brandi carlisle and julien baker, and brittney spencer returns to join john paul white (civil wars) on a compelling version of gladys knight and the pips’ ‘midnight train to georgia’.

they turn in a respectable version of ‘in memory of elizabeth reed’ from the allman brothers, and then close out the session by returning to r.e.m.’s ‘driver 8’, one of my favorites of theirs.

there are five other offerings here, but you get the point. worth a listen if you can find the time.

coming up this weekend, my annual look back at the year that was, where i give my honorable mentions on stuff i listened to but never got around to posting.

stay tuned.