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Peter: I’ve got Foxes on. It’s a really good album.

I mean, they all are.

Tyler: He’s a modern master.

Peter: I thought Weathervanes was his best since Southeastern, but I know you hold some of those records in between in pretty high regard. What would you rank as his top 3?

Tyler: That’s tough stuff right there. Something More Than Free, the follow-up to Southeastern, is an strong LP for which I’ve got a particularly personal affection. The Nashville Sound, his 2017 return to making albums with the 400 Unit, has greatly grown in my estimation over the years.

Also, don’t sleep on the pre-sobriety 400 Unit achievement Here We Rest. If I have a top three, that and Foxes In The Snow are gunning it out for the final spot.

Peter: But Southeastern is number 1?

Tyler: Not number one. I forgot to include it in the top three, though, and it should be in there. If we go that route, though, and include Foxes In The Snow, we’re at zero 400 Unit albums in the holy trinity. I don’t know that that’s right.

Peter: Interesting.

Tyler: Worthy of note: the Ryman live albums, especially Vol. 1. That’s good shit right there.

“Last Of My Kind” especially takes off from the stage. “Cover Me Up,” with the cheer for his sobriety. “Super 8” just scorching the place. So on.

Peter: I have that on CD.

Tyler: CD?

Peter: Yeah! We had a CD player in our old car. It was fun. Like going back in time to the not so distant past.

I’m excited to finish talking Foxes. I would put this in my top 3 Isbell albums (behind Southeastern and Weathervanes).

Tyler: Foxes is tremendous, full stop. We’ve already covered its only blemish—in my estimation—and we’re onto one of my standouts. “Open And Close.”

Peter: I like it too. It’s a good song.

Tyler: It’s just lovely. There’s kindness in it, the reflection on the doorman.

Peter: Yeah, that’s a nice detail.

Do you think it’s about Anna?

Tyler: I’ve presumed it is. New love, New York.

Peter: Right. “Sitting here with a woman I don’t know at all/She’s so small.”

It makes it kind of weird for me. It doesn’t bother you? Imagining him singing this about her?

Tyler: Not a bit. I think it’s a sweet gem about discovering a new romantic connection, in the wake of divorce, no less. Not without innocence, even—he’s drinking tea with a dog on his lap. He didn’t expect to feel at home, but he does. That’s a nice feeling.

I haven’t been divorced, but, as Don Draper purred to Joan, nobody knows how bad it has to get. I fault neither Isbell nor Shires embarking on new courtships in the wake of a legal separation almost certainly predated by months of protracted misery.

Peter: Yeah, but…

Look, I’m not here to be judgy or anything, but before she dated Jason, Anna dated Larry Gagosian, an influential art dealer who championed her. Larry is currently 80. I don’t care about their age difference. I don’t care if their relationship was transactional. But I think it makes Jason look silly mooning over a woman 16 years his junior who just got done dating an 80-year-old. I’m sorry to keep bringing it up, but it just sounds like a guy going through a mid-life crisis. And, that’s sad, so it kind of undercuts some of this album for me.

It’s such a cliche! I feel like he’s going to feel silly about it later on.

Tyler: Put it this way: while Yoko Ono did not break up The Beatles, her influence on John was toxic to extremes. That doesn’t affect my love of “Oh Yoko!”.

John Lennon’s mother issues could be interpreted as cliche, as well, which is not to place Isbell on a Lennon level, but, rather, to note the oft-foolhardy inspiration that leads to great romantic songwriting.

Peter: Hmm. I agree with part of this. But Yoko was older than John. It had a very different dynamic. Anyway, I don’t want to get too far into the weeds on this. Just let the record show that I think there’s a bit of a “Kirk Van Houten showing off his race car bed” vibe to the whole thing.

Tyler: Did Jason co-write “Can I Borrow A Feeling?”

Peter: “Take my hand with your glove of love,” does sound Isbellian.

Tyler: Well, I’m charmed by “Open And Close.” Charmed, I say!

Peter: It is a nice tune. No doubt about that.

Tyler: I can only imagine your internal conflict at our sensual next tune, the title track.

Peter: Yeah, it’s kind of the same, but I don’t want you to think it prevented me from enjoying the album. This is a great song. I like it a lot.

Tyler: I’ve pondered the significance of the title line. “I like her friends, the ones I know; they leave drops of blood like foxes in the snow.”

Sound like aggressive friends.

Peter: Yes! Also, “I like her friends, the ones I know,” seems like such a sad thing to say! She’s not even introducing you to her friends, bro? And you’re writing love songs about her?

Tyler: You really think our guy is being taken, don’t you. They call it the honey pot!

Peter: Honestly? No, I don’t. I don’t think he’s that dumb and I don’t think she’s that cartoonish. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them dating. It’s just the appearance of it all, Tyler! We’re living in a society!

Tyler: “49% of respondents fault social media for a collapse in civility, 43% blame Jason Isbell and Anna Weyant: Quinnipiac.”

Peter: “Foxes” is a good tune though. I dig it.

Tyler: Very evocative. It’s made for late nights.

Peter: The guitar is fun. These are single takes, right? I think we talked about it last time.

Tyler: Did they go with take 1 each time?

Peter: No, sorry, I meant he’s playing guitar and singing and they are complete takes but not necessarily the first take. He didn’t want to go back and gussy them up.

Tyler: I do believe you’re right. He wanted the vocal/guitar combination to be all natural.

Next up: “Crimson And Clay.” A vivid shot across the bow of Isbell’s home state Alabama.

Peter: This one is not about Anna!

I love this song. It’s on my Isbell mega-mix.

Tyler: It’s a keeper. “There’s still so many lonely kids surrounded by the rest of y’all.”

Peter: “Guess the city didn’t kill me after all/The thing that nearly took me out was loneliness and alcohol.”

Brilliant.

Speaking of brilliant. I think our next song, “Good While It Lasted,” is the best song on the album.

Tyler: Ooh, high praise. Lots of excellence on display throughout.

Peter: That chorus. It kills me.

Tyler: It’s a really damn good song. Not my pick for the top, but nonetheless it’s a nimble, affectionate paean to that new love.

Peter: I think there’s a sadness to it that helps. It has more of a recognition or awareness of the context we’ve been discussing. “Now I feel like a boy who got caught being bad.”

Tyler: The grown Isbell can’t bring himself to have merely a fling. He thinks he’ll ask for more than just a love affair.

Peter: Well, he’s in love, Tyler. I kid, but I do think that part of what makes me uncomfortable about this album is we don’t know how she feels about all this. It’s just his perspective. What if she’s only kind of into him? It wouldn’t be her fault! But what if this is a Tony Bourdain situation where Jason’s way more into Anna than Anna’s into Jason?

Tyler: Well, one could ask that question of any subject of any love song ever written. I dunno that the folks about whom “Every Breath You Take,” say, or “Brick” were written have much swing in how we feel about those songs. Asking for that sort of subjective agency in your music is gonna leave you with slim pickings for listening.

Peter: I think when I know a song is about a specific person it influences how I experience the song, but in this case, I was thinking in the real world, it would be sad. If that’s what happens, if it turns out that’s what was going on here, it will be sad. Aren’t you afraid for him? I feel like if he was my friend I would be concerned.

Tyler: I wouldn’t call it fear or concern. I hope he’s wise; I wouldn’t recommend that the two of them conceive any children just yet. I do have faith in the guy, however tentative he himself may be—”the last time I tried this sober I was 17″—so I suppose I don’t think we’re yet in territory where I’m hoping somebody takes him aside.

Plus, going back to the suspension of emotional awareness, we often relish the work when our artists are suffering. We may hope for the best for their sake after the fact, but in the moment of our listener’s passion, that unceasing desire to connect with something musically, we want to share our hurt, our pain, our misery. We want to share our joys, it’s true, and those songs can be wonderful. But there’s a reason that inane dopes out there maintain that the best art comes from unhappy people. Pain does inspire great art, but great art doesn’t require pain. If Weyant and Isbell part ways, civilly or otherwise, I won’t turn my back on these songs describing their idyllic early coupling. Not anymore than I’ll skip past his Shires songs—I’m not giving up on “Cover Me Up,” either.

I go back to Running With Our Eyes Closed, the documentary. Shires and Isbell look at times just disgusted with each other. Now that left me concerned. Anna Weyant may well be playing Jason Isbell for a fool, or maybe their levels of affection are mismatched, or maybe they will, as goes “If We Were Vampires,” get forty years together. None of it is certain; the best of the work transcends. “The love songs all mean different things today.”

Peter: We still have two songs to talk about!

The next song is a real gut punch.

Tyler: These final two probably are my favorites of the album.

Peter: “True Believer” is definitely about Amanda, if you’re keeping score at home.

“All your girlfriends say I broke your fucking heart, and I don’t like it/There’s a letter on the nightstand I don’t think I’ll ever read/Well, I finally found a match, and you kept daring me to strike it/And now I have to let it burn to let it be.”

Tyler: It’s stark. I love the “broke your fuckin’ heart” turn. I love the progression to the final lines, passing on the highway and waving. “I’ll always be a true believer, babe.” Isbell even drops to the lowest register we’ve ever heard him hit for a quick “babe.” It’s a riveting song and performance.

Peter: It feels like the centerpiece of the album.

Tyler: A climax of sorts. The final track functions as a kind of sweet, lovely landing.

Peter: “Wind Behind The Rain” feels nice. It is a sweet landing.

Tyler: Was it not written as a wedding present, for a close relative?

Peter: Oh! I didn’t know that! That’s wonderful. It’s a lovely tune!

Tyler: You hated it! I bet you hated it because you thought it was about Anna Weyant.

Peter: I didn’t! Honestly!

It seemed more generic or ambiguous.

He didn’t reference painting on his soul.

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