If you haven't yet heard the new album - Foxes in the Snow - he leaned pretty heavily on some of those new tunes. And you start to realize that he was kind of a dirt-bag to his ex-wife, as many of those lyrics are deeply confessional and he doesn't shy away from recounting bad moments that were his fault. Just plaintively asking the room if he intends to be alone for all of his days, or telling us that his own behavior was a shock to himself. "Good While It Lasted" is a powerful slice of that, with the title phrase taking on multiple meanings: (1) that their relationship was good while they were having fun and in love; (2) then afterwards, when he found a moment that he didn't think of her, that moment was good while it lasted; and (3) looking back on good memories and realizing it was good while it lasted.
Another amazing thing he did was to change up "Bury Me," the first single from the new album, into a rad zydeco boogie with accordion and everything. The original is a totally low-key acoustic plucker, so to hear it transformed into a danceable party was really cool.
He also fired through a handful of the songs that he recorded with the 400 Unit (which was nice, since they made the trip and all), but as usual he keeps skipping my favorites. A line in "Gravelweed," which is also great, speaks to this somewhat, where he sings “And now that I live to see my melodies betray me/ I’m sorry the love songs all mean different things today.” So, you can see that his recent divorce might change the way that he wants to perform, and those performances wouldn't include "Cover Me Up" or "If We Were Vampires" if he wrote those are love songs about his now ex-wife. Also, no "Elephant." Which is such a dagger of a song, but so well-done. But, "King of Oklahoma" and "Cast Iron Skillet" and "Flying Over Water" were all still super good stuff.
I didn't know the Drive By Truckers song that he used to close the show until a few weeks ago. Had a dive down into a rabbit hole about Richard Manuel, one of the main guys from The Band. The bit of the chorus where Isbell sings "sounds like gold" is amazing, and then the song really lent itself well to the idea of jamming out and extending the groove into the night. I loved it. (shout out Counting Crows as well for their song that mentions him being dead. Those guys were great.)
10/10, would go see him again immediately if given the option!
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