The Marinade's Favorite Records of 2023 | Part I

Welcome to The Marinade’s Favorite Records of 2023! It has always struck me as a little strange that media outlets start to release their year-end lists as early as November. I don’t say that to be contrarian, or even critical, it just strikes me as incongruent with how I think about these things. One of my favorite records from 2022, Adeem the Artist’s White Trash Revelry was not realeased until December, and these things need time to digest.

Thus, it has been my practice to wait until the end of 2023 or first of 2024 to start compiling my list. I chose the adjective favorite because it’s a little biased. Some of my friends and favorite artists made the cut. This is not a journalistic exercise, it’s a celebration of the records that meant the most to me during what was by far the toughest year of my life.

These albums are presented in no particular order except that the three in this post were by far the most influential and important to me.

They are companions and comforts- go-tos during the good and not-so-good of turbulent year.

Enjoy the list and jump in the comments with your thoughts! Thank you for another amazing year of The Marinade!

Love,

JE

Van Plating - Orange Blossom Child

This record is close to home. For the most part, the work I do is intentionally subjective. I lose myself in records regardless of their perspective. With Van Plating albums, the immersion leaves me up to my neck in the swamp that is this place we both call home. 

Van Plating is one of the best people I know and I love her dearly. She is also one of the best songwriters in a genre full of brilliant artists.

Her brand of Americana, which she calls Orange Blossom Country, is always fresh and exciting. This record deftly touches on the reproductive rights of women, enduring and laughing at the entitled misogyny of the music industry, Gen X nostalgia, and so much more. Despite the broad swath of themes, Orange Blossom Child is a cohesive masterwork that steps up her already incredible catalog.  

Jason Isbell - Weathervanes

Marinade Media is full of exaltations of this man and his work. Jason Isbell is America’s greatest songwriter and each album is better than the last.

That point finds itself under frequent debate among Isbell’s super fans. I contend there is a case to be made that all of his other near perfect records have a misstep. “Super 8” is a good song but it sticks out like a sore thumb on his otherwise perfect breakthrough Southeastern. “Anxiety” borders on Dr. Suess triteness at times on the Grammy winning The Nashville Sound. 

Weathervanes contains no arguable missteps. It is full of songs that could each be my favorite of the year. Take “Volunteer,” which has flown under the radar. Find one song from any other artist that rivals this tune.

Pony Bradshaw - North Georgia Rounder

If Jason Isbell did not exist this would probably be my favorite record of the year. Pony Bradshaw’s sense of place and ability to transport the listener is rivaled by very few writers. I have been listening to this record since November of 2022 when it was first pitched to me for coverage.

As is custom, I burned a CD and listened to it on my morning commute, while on my way to a job I hated, and when going to the store. It was there all year and then some as I navigated the mundane as well as the complicated and heavy aspects of my life.

North Georgia Rounder does not need space to grow on you. Its brilliance is apparent from the first listen. But, if you are open, it will give and give. 

Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, Sheryl Crow, and Waxahatchee Live Review and Photos | St. Augustine Amphitheatre | June 10, 2022

Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee) and her band take the stage as folks file into the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. It’s a balmy June night like so many before in this perfect venue. She takes the stage as a lion. A multi-talented cultural force who has sold more than 50 million albums and our greatest living songwriter are up next in succession. Titans who have thirteen Grammy awards between them.

Waxahatchee may not yet have the same name recognition as Jason Isbell or Sheryl Crow but what she lacks in notoriety she makes up for with stage presence and songwriting chops.

No matter how powerful the performer, there is often no way around a few folks talking through the opener. For every cluster of chatter tonight there is an equal or opposite bundle of boosters standing, swaying, stomping, and singing every lyric as Waxahatchee rips through songs from her five wonderful records.

By the time the crowd begins to settle at the end of Waxahatchee’s set, her merch table has a line to rival Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell. New fans have been made. Existing relationships fortified. 

Photo by Jenn Ross

Sheryl Crow is due on stage at 7:30 and arrives not a second overdue. It is easy to take her greatness for granted. Nine Grammy awards and hit after hit for thirty plus years. For many of us in attendance, Sheryl Crow has been making cool stuff for damn near our entire lives. That kind of consistency and longevity of excellence can lead to supportive complacency. Tonight is a reminder of her brilliance. 

“Let’s take it back to when your kids were born,” Crow ribs as she finishes “If It Makes You Happy” and launches into “All I wanna Do.” As you read those titles, each tune made an immediate appearance in your mind’s eye. For folks in their thirties and forties, our childish crushes have turned to admiration for this woman and the contributions she has made to our popular culture.

Sheryl Crow is so damn cool. Every song in the set is a hit, and not just a tune that charted well. These are songs with generational staying power. Every word of the entire set is cemented in our popular consciousness.

Ten songs in, the hit parade still marching, Sheryl Crow announces Jason Isbell is going to join her for a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Everything is Broken.” Out of all the Dylan songs, this one from his mid-period seems like a curious choice at first. Halfway through the first verse it is clear “Everything is Broken” is the perfect duet for Crow and Isbell. 

Photo by Jenn Ross

Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell share the rare combination of commercial connectability and artistic integrity. “Everything is Broken” feels meant for a duet in their hands. It is a mainstream chart worthy tune that dives deep. The song dabbles in the blues without trying to sound like it is from the Delta. It is a folk song and a rock song. A singalong. In so many ways “Everything is Broken” showcases the qualities that made us fall in love with Sheryl Crow and later Jason Isbell.

Crow closes out the set with a performance of her smash hit “Soak Up the Sun.” We needn’t wait too long for Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit to take the stage a few minutes ahead of schedule. Jason Isbell opening songs have become an event in themselves. At this point in his still rising career, he has released four classic studio records of original music preceded by three great efforts. His contributions to Drive-by Truckers remain some of the best in their illustrious catalog. How does he fill the leadoff spot from that roster?

Photo by Jenn Ross

Most folks have settled in their rows for the closing set. When Isbell and The 400 Unit played this same venue in 2021, the pit was general admission, standing room only. Right now it feels like we should all have an agreement to treat the amphitheatre like one big pit. 

Alas, this is a mixed crowd. Some folks are here for Sheryl and stayed for Jason. On the whole, this group skews older than a typical Isbell show. While many of us may selfishly wish we were on our feet, compromises must be made in the name of rock.

“What Have I Done To Help” kicks off the set. The song captures the energy of a live Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit show better than any piece of music journalism could. 

Isbell does so much well. Perhaps his most powerful skill is pointing a lens at society in a way that is personal and pointed, yet unpretentious and hopeful. “What Have I Done To Help” and its follow up in this set “Hope the High Road” capture the energy of the band’s community. 

Photo by Jenn Ross

During a Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit show, the doubts that plague so many of us right now are replaced by a sense that there “can’t be more of them than us.” The concert is not an escape. Problems are not swept under the rug. It’s just that here you feel less alone. You feel like we can do better. We can acknowledge the nasty bits and not get so bogged down in them that progress feels impossible. 

At the end of the night we have heard songs from the beginning of Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit’s catalog. They have played “Elephant” and “24 Frames” and “Cover Me Up.” There was even a performance of Drivin’ N Cryin’s “Honeysuckle Blue” from the excellent Georgia Blue record- Sadler Vaden owning the vocals. 

The encore included “Tour of Duty” played by Sadler and Jason like they were a progressive bluegrass duo. All of that goodness yet nothing from Jason Isbell’s time with the Drive-by Truckers. No matter. This band has come a long way since the “Stop Fucking Around and Play Outfit” tour.

Photo by Jenn Ross

A Series of Essays on The Marinade's Favorite Albums of 2020 | Reunions by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

This is the first in a series of short essays looking back at the records we loved from 2020. The series focuses on how each album impacted Jason Earle’s life this year.

“Be Afraid,” the first single released from Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s Reunions came out in February of 2020, the same weekend I ran my first marathon. It was a fitting release date. The great ones have this way of putting out the sentiment we need at the right time. The novel coronavirus arrived in Florida in the same month but life was continuing as normal. Our challenges were of our own creation at the moment.

For the amateur, running a marathon is an encompassing endeavor. Most of your free time is spent training, meal planning, and recovering. Your emotional bank account is on life support for several months. 

To get across the finish line you need your personal support system, which I consider to include my friends and family but also the art I consume. Like art, running is rhythmic. The physical act itself and the process of training for a race both require a consistent commitment to coming back to the things you need to stay in the moment. 

The act of creation is similar in so many ways. When we find ourselves doing the work on a regular basis, treating it with a certain rhythm, breakthroughs happen on a more regular basis. 

What we know about Jason Isbell is that he does the work. Hours of guitar practice every day. Going back to the well again and again. 

Photo by Jason Earle

The result of Isbell’s dedication is a succession of classic albums. Prior to his 2020 release, the last three (or four) of his records are brilliant works. But, it is possible no record has ever hit me as hard as Reunions. 

The year 2020 was one for facing fears. Fears of democracy’s decline and possible end. Fears of mortality. We as a species had to dig deep. Isbell could not have known the depth and breadth of challenges humans would face this year, and that is why a song like “Be Afraid” is so powerful. Its message matters as much now as it will in five or ten years. 

New challenges and fears will follow. The same ones will rear their heads. All the while, great art - works of the magnitude of Reunions - will be there as support. A way to think through and deal with our fears. A “battle cry” as Isbell says on that first single.  

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s Reunions is the record I listened to the most in 2020 because it represents the best of us. Our ability to endure and innovate. Our willingness to keep fighting when the finish line seems to push further and further away. Whether pushing ourselves to run a marathon or just surviving a once in a hundred year shit storm, we can “be very afraid,” but we also must ask ourselves, “What have I done to help”?

The Consequence of Genius: Some Words About Jason Isbell's Reunions

Photo by Jason Earle

An odd consequence of genius is we come to expect it. When Bob Dylan puts out a mediocre or even slightly sub-par by his standards collection of songs, the effort is met with vitriolic critical rebuke. Such is the price of creating art that inspires across cultures and generations. Songs by Dylan and his ilk are not to be casually enjoyed. They are events requiring time to marinate and then parse.

The difference between Dylan and modern standard-bearers is the former is going to have an audience even after each perceived misstep. Everyone watches his mulligans because the competition in his heyday was minimal compared to geniuses in an internet-connected, streaming world.

Today we have instant access to truckloads of great songwriters. If one stumbles, our collective attention wanes, and in that lapse a writer may not recover for two or three albums- if at all. Jason Isbell has admitted to feeling a bit of this pressure. In a very candid New York Times piece, he confessed his new record Reunions was a different beast.

Long an Americana darling, Isbell’s notoriety and prestige stepped into a different gear with the Dave Cobb-produced trio of records Southeastern, Something More Than Free, and The Nashville Sound. Ask an Isbell obsessive about their favorite record and you will likely get a different answer depending on the day. This is because Jason Isbell is the best songwriter in popular American roots music. With the mantle of greatest comes a more critical and less forgiving eye.

Reunions will not settle the score. Art is not an objective competition so we cannot discharge the debate. Frankly, Isbell does not owe any further proof of greatness, yet further proof is exactly what this collection delivers.

With every song, he challenges us to think about our place in the world. By turning a mirror on himself, in this case a far-sighted mirror reaching to less proud moments of the past, he challenges the stories of internal valor we tell ourselves and roots out questions about how we are actually going to confront our issues.

If you just looked at Jason Isbell, maybe caught a tiny snippet of him saying something seemingly inconsequential, you would be forgiven for thinking he was just like us. He has a way of remaining authentically down-to-earth while orbiting the creative sphere in rare air.

The truth is in short supply even as access to information increases exponentially. We still get romanticized, sometimes sterilized versions of artists and ideas. Merchants of misinformation point fingers rather than offer honest appraisals of the way things are. Thankfully, Isbell is hyper-committed to the truth to the point of expecting it from himself and the listener.

Like a dog’s peanut butter coated pill, facts are better consumed on a full stomach with an appetizing presentation. All great songwriters have this ability. Isbell does it better than anyone.

On “Dreamsicle” — one of the biggest triumphs in his storied career — the narrator reminisces about a mother trying to make the most of a dysfunctional situation. Despite multiple narratives throughout the album, there are common threads to which we have grown accustomed with Jason Isbell records. Namely, everyone is doing their best, and if they are not then it’s time to start. His characters are broken and battered but each tale is delivered with empathy for the realities that lead to less than ideal situations.

Photo by Jason Earle

Even if you can’t directly relate to growing up in a dysfunctional family, the humanity in each story offers something universally unifying. Isbell never misses. There are polarizing songs on the other records. One person finds “Anxiety” speaks directly to them. Another thinks it a bit too much. A diehard fan names “24 Frames” as their favorite while someone else thinks it falls short of his best. Reunions does not have those tunes. It offers not a moment to check out or allow the songs shelter as background noise.

Honest introspection is typically tough by nature. Baring your scars for a discerning audience to examine and apply their own whims is an even bigger display of honesty. The characters of Reunions leave nothing on the field, including the role of a man supporting his grieving partner and trying to suppress his own jealousy or the performer exhorting their cohort to “be afraid but do it anyway.”

Each song is a masterpiece worthy of marination, and even after just a couple of weeks in the world they already feel all-consuming. It is the right kind of possession, one where the possessed grows stronger with each listen.

Artists on the level of Jason Isbell are lucky to get mulligans these days. Fortunately for Isbell, he has not needed one. If that day ever comes, let’s remember Reunions- a record that raised a bar already set so high only one writer could have cleared it.