So, let’s close out this little arc before I head out on vacation, hopefully to be less online for a bit. Technically a little bit older but very much of the same Xennial bent as Justin Townes Earle, Jason Isbell has established himself as arguably the preeminent Americana singer/songwriter of his generation. Struggling with so many of the same demons, even at times with the conscious notion that it might be a right of passage, he and Earle became friends in Isbell’s early days with the iconic roots rock band Drive By Truckers. If anything, DBT and early Isbell’s sound hearken back to Steve Earle’s early commercial albums, with a lot of hard charging electric guitar. In an arc that reminds outside observers of various “path not taken” alternate universe narratives, Isbell found what has seemed to be a fairly sustained sobriety and reoriented a phase of his career to unpacking what it has all meant, how to live with who he is, and has pulled remarkable creativity out of a type of stability that seems to frighten a certain type of young artist.

If We Were Vampires is a southern Gothic love song, though not really touching on the supernatural, more like what if an Anne Rice reader wrote a brilliant ballad. Listening to it was one of those “wow” moments, when I just perk up at a lyricist who absolutely nailed it on a song. I’m hardly alone in admiring his work, and a song or two only scratches the surface.

To stitch this thread back on itself, and close the loop, here’s Isbell’s rumination on his friend Justin Townes Earle, wistful but also with a decent amount of survivors’ guilt and lingering resentment.