Jason Isbell Gave Himself a Challenge, and He Won

Jason Isbell isn't afraid to be vulnerable.

His latest album, Foxes in the Snow, sees the musician strip down sonically and emotionally. He's always been earnest in his lyrics, but he's particularly open on this album, which examines his feelings during his recent divorce and then finding love again with his current partner, Anna Weyant, who created the album's artwork. His acoustic renderings further imbue the lyrics with intimacy, with Isbell forgoing his large backing band, the 400 Unit, for just his Alabama-flavored voice and a guitar.

"I was looking for a way to challenge myself," he says, noting that his previous album, 2023's Weathervanes, was "a full-band rock record," and he "didn't want to just do that all over again."

"And also, I've gone through a lot of changes in my life, things that felt more conducive to a quieter project, a more singer-songwriter-oriented project," he explains. "It just made sense."

Isbell had to "fight the urge" to build up the songs with more instruments, he says: "I wanted the songs to work on a solo acoustic level, independently of anything that might happen to them later on."

The songs will definitely sound different with his band, but it's doubtful the intensely felt stories will be lost under more layers of sound. The band's tour supporting Foxes in the Snow includes several Colorado dates, kicking off in Colorado Springs at the Ford Amphitheater on April 30, followed by two nights at the Mission Ballroom and ending with a sold-out show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on May 3.

"I think I resisted the temptation to hear the songs more fleshed out in my head, and just tried to focus on lyrics and melody and chord structure and only that, which was definitely was a challenge for me. I sort of abandoned typical arrangement work," Isbell says.

"And really," he emphasizes, "I just wanted to get how I felt down on the page."

As challenging as it was, Isbell's hard work resulted in a deeply personal album that makes listeners feel less alone. Such songs as "Gravelweed" reflect on relationship hardships, with past love songs meaning "different things today," he notes.

"It's not hard to write a song like 'Gravelweed,'" Isbell says, "but it is hard to let anyone else hear it. I could just sit and spit out songs all day, but to write one that is truly vulnerable — and they're all intimate, but to be really vulnerable — you have to show your throat. You have to say, 'I'm giving you the opportunity to harm me.' And to do that is very difficult...it might actually get harder the older I get because...more people are involved, more opinions, more interests to look out for. But it feels like the right thing to do if you push yourself as a creative person."

The album's title track, which has a tone reminiscent of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War," takes us to the next step of his journey: finding new love. Isbell says that his girlfriend is "in a lot of his songs" on Foxes in the Snow. "The concept of love is there a lot," he adds. "Sometimes I'm writing a specific line to her, and sometimes I'm writing to the idea of love itself."

Not all of his songs are based on Isbell's own stories; sometimes he takes on the role of narrator, like a modern minstrel. Bob Dylan, one of his main musical influences, did the same, Isbell notes, pointing to the track "Hurricane," which is about the imprisonment of Rubin Carter. "But then there are some Dylan songs where you don't know what he's talking about or who he's talking about — it could be him, or it could be people in his life, or it could be people that he made up, and you never really get those answers," Isbell says. "And I think part of enjoying good songs is the fact that those answers aren't readily available, so you can fill in the blanks and apply them to your own life."

Perhaps the song that listeners will take the most from is "Don't Be Tough," which comes across as advice from a friend, evoking resiliency and hard-won wisdom. While Isbell is in a great place in his life, he's disturbed by the current state of the U.S. under the Trump administration. He's always been outspoken about his Democratic beliefs, and even performed at the Democratic National Convention last year.

"To me, all creative work, all art, is political," he says. "If you try to say it's not, that in itself is a political stance. ... I just try to tell the truth, and I think it's really, really clear that about half of us think we're heading in a terrible direction. What I try to do for myself, for my own well-being, is do something every day that makes me feel like I'm contributing to what I consider to be the good part of our country — the part that I think is open and inclusive and in favor of things like science and education and the creative arts.

"I would like to see more people speak up, but I understand that it's easier for me than for some folks: I've had a certain amount of success and I'm a white male, so it's easier for me to say something and not worry about the blowback," he concludes. "I feel like if we all just stood up at the same time, it'd be impossible to ignore. The problem is when one or two people can't stand up or won't, then the rest of us look like idiots. So you have to focus on the process of doing the right thing and get your own needed amount of sleep every night, and then get up and start over again."

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit play Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop Street, Thursday, May 1, and Friday, May 2, and Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison, 7 p.m. Saturday, May 3. Tickets to Mission Ballroom and resale tickets for Red Rocks are available via AXS.com.