Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit are set to release a new 13-track project, Weathervanes, on June 9, marking the followup to 2020’s Reunions and 2021’s Georgia Blue. “There is something about boundaries on this record,” Isbell said via a statement. “As you mature, you still attempt to keep the ability to love somebody fully and completely while you’re growing into an adult and learning how to love yourself.”
“Isbell is a storyteller at the peak of his craft,” says ESPN’s Wright Thompson, who narrates the video clip. “Observing his fellow wanderers, looking inside himself and trying to understand, reducing a universe to four minutes. billboard
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: Weathervanes
Jason Isbell is back with a new album, Weathervanes, his sixth with his Muscle Shoals band the 400 Unit—Sadler Vaden, Jimbo Hart, Derry deBorja and Chad Gamble—and his ninth overall since leaving the Drive-By Truckers.
The band released the first single “Death Wish” from the new album, written and produced by Isbell and due out June 9 via Southeastern Records/Thirty Tigers. “Did you ever love a woman with a death wish / Something in her eyes like switching off a light switch,” he sings to open the driving Southern rock song with beautiful strings by Morgan O’Shaughnessey. “Everybody dies but you gotta find a reason to carry on.” Paste Magazine
1. Death Wish
2. King Of Oklahoma
3. Strawberry Woman
4. Middle Of The Morning
5. Save The World
6. If You Insist
7. Cast Iron Skillet
8. When We Were Close
9. Volunteer
10. Vestavia Hills
11. White Beretta
12. This Ain’t It
13. Miles
CD EDITION:
VINYL EDITION:
Special guests:
Amanda Shires – Fiddle, Background Vocals
Mickey Raphael – Harmonica on Strawberry Woman
Background vocals on “If You Insist“ by Sylvia Massy & Ian Rickard Strings on “Death Wish” by Morgan O’Shaughnessey
Amanda Shires appears courtesy of Silver Knife Records and ATO Records
Produced by: Jason Isbell
Additional production by Matt Pence on tracks 1,3, 5, 8 and 10
Engineers: Gena Johnson, Matt Ross-Spang, Michael Bethancourt and Matt Pence
Assistant engineer: Austin Brown
Mixed by Sylvia Massy & Ian Rickard at The Oddio Shop
Mastering: Pete Lyman at Infrasonic Sound, Assisted by Daniel Bacigalupi
Recorded at Blackbird Studios
Photos: Joshua Black Wilkins
Art direction: Pearl Rachinsky and Caroline Bowman
All songs written by Jason Isbell, Southeastern Publishing (BMI)