Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit / Liam Gerner

The Bishopston suburb of Bristol is not the place you would expect to find the cream of Americana to be performing. However, it's here at the homely St Bonaventure's Parish Social Club where CRH Music regularly put on gigs that focus largely on drawing some of the biggest names in Alt.County. In years gone by St Bon's has played host to such luminaries as Josh Rouse, Iron & Wine, Joanna Newsom, Laura Veirs and The Willard Grant Conspiracy and tonight the 200-capacity club is treated to Jason Isbell, formerly of The Drive-By Truckers, accompanied by his touring band The 400 Unit.

Kicking off the evening gently was the fast rising Australian Liam Gerner with his set of acoustic melancholy. Gerner charmed the audience with his declaration of love for the venue and his engaging between song banter. His performance was amiable with some delicate tunes, like the lovely 'Pony On The Boat', which he used as an introduction to us before he let himself go and show a louder side, none more noticeable than on 'One Song Gramaphone' which tumbled along like an Ocean Colour Scene track. Gerner, himself, mentioned that a sound technician had compared him to Jackson Browne and that comparison was not too far fetched, especially when covering Browne's 'My Stunning Mystery Companion'.



Gerner is a very talented musician but too often found himself straying into the middle of the road with 'Benny Seals Highway' coming across a little bit too similar to Ryan Adams' 'New York, New York'. The most jovial moment of the solid set was on Shel Silverstein's 'Son Of A Scoundrel' which Gerner introduced by describing, maybe somewhat tongue-in-cheek, all Australians as convicts and sang "...was your grandma a whore? Was your grandpa a thief?...". Fans of the mainstream will surely warm to Gerner and he will pick up a new legion of followers when he supports Paul Weller at the Teenage Cancer Trust show at the Royal Albert Hall later this week.

When Jason Isbell quit the band Drive-By Truckers fans were hugely disappointed, the songwriting trio of Isbell, Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood were seen as one of the strongest collections of writers put together in one band. Followers of Drive-By Truckers have found themselves falling in love with Isbells solo debut record 'Sirens Of The Ditch' so Isbell going solo has been seen as a blessing in disguise since many of Isbell's songs may have taken years to surface on Drive-By Truckers albums with Cooley and Hood seemingly underrating the quality of Isbell's writing.



Isbell, together with his talented set of musicians The 400 Unit, is making his first trip around Britain to promote the aforementioned debut record and nothing had prepared me for the tightness of the sound created by Isbell and fellow guitarist Browan Lollar who synched perfectly together creating a masterful combination of noise and melody.

Isbell's style is described as 'Swamp Pop' and there is something to be said about that. The songs have an unmistakable country feel to them but also have incredibly strong melodies, immense power and rewarding lyrics. Isbell-penned Drive-By Truckers songs 'Danko/Manuel' and 'Decoration Days' were early signs of his ability and tonight they have grown further into massive anthems backed up with thumping bass from Jimbo Hart.

After a bottle of Jack Daniel's made it's way round the band, apart from Lollar who preferred tea, the buzzing, mostly seated, crowd were treated to a plausible future classic. 'Dress Blues' is a song about a school friend, Jason Conoly, from Isbell's hometown, Green Hill, Alabama, who died in service in Iraq and was dedicated to him and his family. It is one of the most genuinely moving songs I have ever had the pleasure of seeing performed live.

"...you never planned on the bombs in the sand or sleeping in your dress blues..."



Lollar took centre stage for a stunning re-creation of the Talking Heads classic 'Psycho Killer' showing his own front-man potential turning it into a bouncy fuzzing blues song brilliantly. Other highlights from an excellent set included album tracks 'Hurricanes And Hand Grenades', 'Try', and 'Chicago Promenade' which includes the line "...if I die before I'm old, my story will be less than told..." so we can hopefully see a great deal more of Isbell's talent in the future.

As the band walked off stage to a noisy ovation they continued to sip from the bottle of whiskey, and it was a well-deserved drink. Tonight we were treated to some real southern comfort.

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