Jason Isbell The Nashville Sound released

The Nashville Sound Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Released: June 16, 2017 Peak: 4 US, 11 CW, 26 UK, 24 CN, 30 AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.15 US Genre: Americana/folk rock

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Last of My Kind Cumberland Gap (10/6/18, 40 AA) Tupelo White Man’s World If We Were Vampires (5/18/17, 29 AA, 1 DF) Anxiety Molotov Chaos and Clothes Hope the High Road (4/22/17, 12 AA) Something to Love Total Running Time: 40:17 The Players: Jason Isbell (vocals, guitar) Amanda Shires (harmony vocals, fiddle) Sadler Vaden (electric guitar) Jimbo Hart (bass) Derry Deborja (keyboards) Chad Gamble (drums)

Rating: 4.034 out of 5.00 (average of 31 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Jason Isbell got his start as a singer, guitarist, and keyboardist with the Southern-rock band Drive-By Truckers from 2001 to 2007. Over the next ten years, he released six albums as a solo act or with his backing band, the 400 Unit. 2017’s The Nashville Sound was his second album to reach the top 10 on Billboard and third to top 100,000 in sales. It is his best seller to date and affirms “his place as one of the best and most emotionally affecting artists working in roots music today.” AM The album was significant in the Americana movement of the 21st century, winning awards for the Americana Album of the Year from the Grammys and the Americana Music Association. It was also nominated for Album of the Year by the Country Music Association. The album also topped Billboard’s Americana chart. The album benefits from the backing band; it “delivers a richer and more eclectic sound and…the performances matter just as much as the songs.” AM “The more varied tone of the ten tracks helps to emphasize the thematic strength of Isbell’s storytelling, with the electric guitar work of Isbell and Sadler Vaden, the keyboards of Derry Deborja, and the violin of Amanda Shires lending these numbers a wide range of tones and moods.” AM “This is a set of outstanding songs that registers as the work of a great band, as well as the craft of a world-class tunesmith.” AM The album highlight is If We Were Vampires. Its “spare acoustic approach” AM emphasizes the beauty of this flawless love song. It won a Grammy for Best American Roots Song and was named song of the year in the countdown by the radio station 90.9 The Bridge in Kansas City. The album also features “the crashing dynamics of Anxiety, the understated dread of White Man’s World,” AM< “the guitar-fueled fury of Hope the High Road, the New South vs. Old South rock of The Cumberland Gap, and the bittersweet bluegrass-styled confessions of Something to Love.” AM

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Mark Deming WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 11/5/2025.

Jason Isbell “If We Were Vampires” released

Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, from NPR.org

If We Were Vampires Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Writer(s): Jason Isbell (see lyrics here) Released: May 18, 2017 First Charted: December 23, 2017 Peak: 29 AA, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 8.21 video, 144.60 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer/songwriter and guitarist Jason Isbell was born in 1979 in Green Hill, Alabama. He was a member of the rock band Drive-By Truckers from 2001 to 2007 and then went solo. His first album didn’t chart, but every album after that did – each doing better than its predecessor. His peak came in 2017 with The Nashville Sound reaching #4 on the Billboard album chart. It also won the Grammy for Best Americana Album. As of this posting, the song also ranked as the top song of all time by Kansas City radio station 90.9 The Bridge. “If We Were Vampires,” which was released as the first single from the album, won a Grammy for Best American Roots Song – an award he also won in 2016 with the song “24 Frames.” The bittersweet tune offers reflections on love and the finite nature of life, saying “Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone / Maybe we’ll get 40 years together / But one day I’ll be gone / Or one day you’ll be gone.” He explained that the song came about when his wife, fellow singer/songwriter Amanda Shires, nagged him to stop watching Hoarders and write songs since he was going into the studio on Monday. He insisted he had enough songs, but she wouldn’t let up. He ended up writing “If We Were Vampires.” BT He said, “I’m really grateful to her for lighting the fire under my ass and making me work that day, because that song turned out to be pretty special to a lot of people…The first few times I tried to play it for [Shires]…I couldn’t even get through it. I had to turn around and leae the room and come back in and try again.” BT Resources: BT TheBoot.com (10/11/2018). “Story Behind the Song: Jason Isbell, ‘If We Were Vampires’” by Carena Liptak SF Songfacts Related Links: First posted 9/22/2022; last updated 11/23/2025.