this is jason’s second live album, the other being 2012’s ‘live from alabama’. just like that one did, ‘live from the ryman’ focuses on material from his last three studio albums: ‘southeastern’ (2013), ‘something more than free’ (2015), and last year’s ‘the nashville sound’.

the band has become to the ryman what the allman brothers once were to new york’s beacon theater. they have fourteen consecutive sellouts from 2014 through 2017, and are in the middle of their 2018 six night run right now. all of the material presented here is from the 2017 run, and the thirteen songs were hand selected by jason. the album is mixed by dave cobb, who also produced the last three albums. (they also worked together on the soundtrack to ‘a star is born’, with bradley cooper singing an isbell penned tune, ‘maybe it’s time’). in my mind cobb’s work on ‘southeastern’ is one of the reasons he is one of the most sought after producers in nashville. he has stated that he wanted the listening experience to make it feel like you’re right there in the audience. one of my first impressions is that you may be a little too close. the crowd noise is up in the mix, and there are a number of guys and maybe one female in the audience who feel compelled to give out a ‘whooo’ a little too often. other than that the band sounds great.

i have seen them three times over the last 18 months and this is pretty indicative of their usual performance. i think the best songs are the ones selected from ‘southeastern’, especially ‘elephant’. i never grow tired of that song. if you are not familiar with jason’s work, i would start with that album. his latest two don’t quite match up, in my opinion. this live album would also be a good introduction. ‘last of my kind’, off of ‘nashville sound’ is also a highlight here, mostly due to the band airing it out a little bit between lyrics and making it the only song that is significantly different than the studio versions of the rest.

which leads me to my only real criticism of the offering. if it wasn’t for the crowd, you might not know that it was live. no extended jams, covers or other features you might expect from a live concert. i know from experience that he does do this during shows, but for some reason chose not to include them in this release. still, you really can’t go wrong with a little more jason isbell in your collection.

as a curious aside, some of you may know that he gave up drinking a while ago, before these last three albums were recorded. of the 13 songs, my rough calculation is that he mentions drugs or alcohol in at least ten of them. maybe he lives vicariously through his characters. whatever it takes to keep him clean and healthy is ok with me.

this is john hiatt’s first new recording in four years, his longest pause since the seventies. now 66, much of the material is reflective in nature. whether acknowledging his own shortcomings as a person, reconsidering old romances, or staring at his impending demise, the songs here are well constructed and honest. recorded in nashville last summer (three of the songs were recorded the day of the eclipse, hence the title), the arrangements are sparse but appropriate. kenneth blevins provides the drums, much like he has since ‘slow turning’ in 1987. and then we add some organ and a blend of acoustic and electric guitars for a nice folk/rock blend (check out the j.j.cale style leads in ‘over the hill’ below).

fans of his work will recognize his typical songwriting patterns and wry humor. this is probably my favorite album of his since ‘crossing muddy waters’. he seems to know that time is running out (and his voice is not what it once was), but he still has something to say and has the integrity to do it the right way.

he is going out on a solo tour starting saturday in new orleans. he has eighty songs prepared and will do about 25 a night he says, taking requests. should be a good show if he comes to your area.

this is the devil makes three’s first release of original material in five years, and it’s somewhat of a departure from their previous work, including their album of cover songs from 2016, ‘redemption and ruin’. i really liked that one, and wrote about it when it came out. it was a collection of songs by writers as varied as townes van zandt, muddy waters, hank williams sr., tom waits, and ralph stanley, just to name a few. the song selections had a number of themes driven by faults, vices, and forgiveness (hence the title). in many ways the original tunes penned by guitarist pete bernhard on the new one explore similar thoughts and stories.

what makes this album different from the past is threefold. this is the first studio release with a drummer, as their touring drummer stefan amidon joins them throughout. in addition, the overall sound is a tad more sophisticated and catchy, and might be their most commercially accessible release to date. sometimes that would be considered a backhanded compliment, but i don’t think that’s the case here – i think that it’s just different, not better or worse. i have really enjoyed everything i have of theirs, and this is no exception. thirdly, the production then complements all of this with a more refined approach, as compared to their previous raw and rootsy style.

although they are often categorized and marketed as a bluegrass band, in reality i think they are better described as a blend of folk/country/ragtime with an occasional punk urgency, especially in their live performances. this album doesn’t sound anything like bluegrass to me, in fact it is a bit hard to categorize at all, which is often a good thing. if you are unfamiliar with the band, this is a great starting point. if you like this, then i would highly suggest looking into the rest of their catalog. i have not seen them live, and their current tour seems to be all out west, but i will keep them on my radar if they announce anything east of the mississippi. in the meantime this will be on my playlist for a while.

if , like me, you consider the allman brother band’s ‘at fillmore east’ album to be one of the greatest rock records ever made, then i suggest you check out their newest release, ‘fillmore east, february 1970’. initially released in 1996, this is a technological improvement on the original. a collaboration between the allman brothers and the owsley stanley foundation, we get a new listen to the tapes that owsley ‘bear’ stanley recorded of the band over a year before the more famous shows.  this is one of the initial offerings from the stanley foundation that intends to showcase the huge vault of reels that bear recorded over the years. the other one is a box set of doc and merle watson recorded at the boarding house in 1974. bear referred to these recordings as his ‘sonic journals’. in addition to the legendary quality of his recordings, the nearly fifty year old tapes have been restored and mastered by jeffrey norman, which some of you may know as the technician who works on all of the new releases from the grateful dead’s vault. culled from three shows of material, we get seven songs and 72 minutes of material. the band was only eleven months old at the time, and they were the opening act for the dead for these shows. they didn’t have a soundman travelling with them, so bear volunteered since he was doing the second act anyways and already knew about the band.

fans of the dead can reference the ‘bear’s choice’ album and ‘dick’s picks four’ for the dead’s part of the shows, also taken from bear’s reels. it would be the beginning of a musical friendship between the two bands for a long time, culminating in the 1973 watkins glen show with the band in front of 600,000 fans.

compared to the 1971 version, this has a more raw and primal feel to it. witness the two versions of ‘in memory of elizabeth reed’ below. dickey betts had only just recently composed the song weeks before the 1970 shows, and these are the earliest known recordings of the song (all three shows are available for download at the foundation’s website).

as i mentioned in an earlier post, many of the bands on the cutting edge of live jamming in the late sixties were fans of coltrane, miles, and other jazz musicians. that may be no more evident than listening closely to ‘liz reed’. it is a real instrumental masterpiece, and it would become the cornerstone of their live performances for decades. it is certainly one of my favorite songs of theirs. the version 13 months later in 1971 is longer, more polished and precise, but mrs. redeyegin agrees with my take on the one offered here (i think it is from the second night) – i may like it a bit better. 5 of the other seven songs are also included in the 1971 classic, the only difference being ‘outskirts of town’, which somewhat disappeared from the set list later in the year.

the liner notes are superb, with comments by bear himself and his daughter. there is also a section from the foundation’s executive director that comments on all three ‘liz reeds’, how they were different, and comparing the overall composition to three songs from miles davis’ ‘kind of blue’, which dickie had been listening to at the time. enjoy.

hat tip to loyal reader dave c.