Jason Isbell: Foxes in the Snow
Jason Isbell, the beloved singer songwriter who made his name with Drive-By Truckers and cemented his reputation with The 400 Unit, has already released three solo albums. However, you’ve never heard him on his own quite like this. Foxes in the Snow is Isbell’s first fully acoustic solo album, 11 tracks of expert guitar-picking and some of his best songwriting to date. And while he’s never been one to bog down his songs with unnecessary instrumental layers or studio tricks, Foxes in the Snow is as intimate as it gets. It’s a spectacular listen. The album opens with Isbell’s voice calling out, no guitar to hold him: “Bury me where the wind don’t blow/ Where the dust won’t cover me/ Where the tall grass grows/ Or bury me right where I fall.” These are songs of acceptance for life’s fragility, winking acknowledgments that none of us get out alive. Indeed, that’s Isbell to a T. The record’s strongest selection is “Gravelweed,” a painfully vulnerable admission of Isbell’s growth as a man (“I wish that I could be angry/ Punch a hole in the wall/ But that ain’t me anymore, baby”) paired with a howl-at-the-moon chorus that’ll haunt you for weeks. Foxes in the Snow mixes these heart wrenching songs with sweet, grinning folk tunes like “Don’t Be Tough,” where Isbell advises, “Don’t be shitty to the waiter, he’s had a harder day than you.” It’s humbling and astonishingly good.
