unplugged can still electrify.
An excellent bandleader, guitarist and singer, Isbell is first and foremost a songwriter, and that skill takes center stage on his new album, 鈥淔oxes in the Snow,鈥� which will be released Friday. It鈥檚 Isbell鈥檚 first solo acoustic album, and his first album since 2013 without his band,
Accompanied by only his 1940 Martin acoustic guitar, Isbell sorts through romantic relationships. He sounds like someone trying to find his bearings. There鈥檚 blood on the tracks.
That鈥檚 not surprising given that the album is Isbell鈥檚 first since his breakup with singer-songwriter Amanda Shires after more than a decade of marriage. Some of the material sounds powerfully autobiographical, and that鈥檚 especially true on the chorus of 鈥淕ravelweed."
鈥淚 was gravelweed and I needed you to raise me / You couldn鈥檛 reach me once I felt like I was raised,鈥� he sings. "And now that I live to see my melodies betray me / I鈥檓 sorry the love songs all mean different things today.鈥�
Yes, the 2013 fan favorite 鈥淐over Me Up," does sound different now.
Isbell sings about dangerous memories, dreams forgotten, the value of persistence, and the tug of his Alabama roots. 鈥淩ide to Robert鈥檚鈥� pays tribute to one of downtown Nashville鈥檚 best honky-tonks, while 鈥淥pen and Close鈥� skewers a bar band for mangling Steely Dan. (That's something he knows a little something about; Isbell spent a formidable stretch in a Steely Dan cover band.)
Rich, lean language and imaginative turns of phrase are Isbell's specialty. 鈥淚 hope they鈥檙e grading on a curve,鈥� he sings. "Forever is a dead man鈥檚 joke.鈥� And later, 鈥淵ou thought the truth was just a rumor.鈥� All three come from just one song, 鈥淓ileen.鈥�
Isbell is a terrific acoustic guitarist, and his playing here is subtle and superb. A Doc Watson-style riff provides the foundation for the title cut, while nifty filigrees augment the waltz 鈥淥pen and Close鈥� and the opener 鈥淏ury Me,鈥� which sounds like a cowboy song from the 鈥�50s. That's the 1950s, or 1850s.
In a brave experiment, Isbell is touring solo, testing whether or not these sturdy but sober songs are enough to hold the attention of several thousand spectators. At the moment, he鈥檚 not in the mood to stomp and holler.
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Steven Wine, The Associated Press
