Country music gets a bad rap. Admittedly, much of the vitriol is deserved, especially in the sanitized, cookie-cutter blandification of the Nashville-churned pop country that has come to dominate the genre.
But even the most scathing and accurate criticisms of country music fall flat in the face of Jason Isbell.
When I was first introduced to Isbell, I heard someone call him “your favorite songwriter’s favorite songwriter.” His prowess was likened to legends like John Prine and Bob Dylan. Those are impossibly high standards, but his 2020 album Reunions somehow lives up to them.