Ravinia 2024 Issue 6

Isbell’s determination to confront some of America’s greatest ills—racism and sexism, gun proliferation and opioid addic- tion—have occasionally put the outspoken star at odds with country music culture, particularly the jingo-driven characters that vilified the Dixie Chicks (as they were then named) during the Bush-Cheney years. Still, Isbell has earned the respect of many for proudly defending his more inclusive values, regard- less of the strong conservative streak in his chosen genre. “If the music is song-driven, lyrically strong, most of the people who make it are gonna be pretty good folks,” Isbell told the British publication The Independent earlier this year. “Not always, but most of the time, if you spend your life with words, trying to tell stories about other people, you’re gonna learn how to empathize a little bit. As soon as you do that, you are no longer a Trumper.” A musical prodigy who began performing onstage as a scrappy teenager in his native Alabama, 45-year-old Isbell has managed to ride the rock-star roller coaster through its frightening plunges and crazy loop-de-loops, only to emerge as Nashville royalty. He and his band, The 400 Unit, enjoy regular residencies at Music City’s storied Ryman Auditorium, playing an extended series of shows every October. (This fall, they’re also releasing a live album, Live from The Ryman, Volume 2 .) Isbell’s studio recordings have scored six Grammys over the past decade, won in three pairs: for Best Americana Album— Something More Than Free, The Nashville Sound , and Weather- vanes —and Best American Roots Song for a track from each record. Isbell and the band have enjoyed a long victory lap this year following their most recent Grammy triumph in February, touring everywhere from Radio City Music Hall to the Holly- wood Bowl to Tennessee’s legendary Bonnaroo Festival. Of course, there’s more to Isbell’s story than stunning suc- cess. He was just a 22-year-old English major when he joined the Southern rock outfit Drive-By Truckers. (He left the Uni- versity of Memphis one credit shy of graduation to go on tour. A generation later, in September 2023, the university awarded him a bachelor’s in English.) While the Truckers were already an established and beloved band, the outfit got even better with Isbell’s songwriting and guitar chops added to the mix. But in 2007, after six years of playing together, his bandmates fired Isbell, unable to continue accommodating his escalating alcoholism. Flash forward to 2013. Isbell had his own band and, now so- ber, recorded Southeastern . That’s when guitarist Sadler Vaden enters the picture. Born and raised in the Carolinas, Vaden had gotten in with Drivin N Cryin, which brought him to Nashville, where he could be found hanging out with 400 Unit keyboard- ist Derry deBorja—a friendship that changed Vaden’s life. “One night, Tracy, Jason’s manager, called me and said, ‘Hey, I hear you want to join our band,’ ” Vaden said in a recent interview with Ravinia Magazine. He was caught a bit speech- less, he recalls: “I was like, ‘Oh my God, wow.’ I was pretty, you know, ‘Really?!’ ” That stunned reaction wasn’t solely due to excitement that he’d just been invited to join The 400 Unit. Vaden was sud- denly faced with a tough choice. “It’s funny,” he explains. “I’d never expressed wanting to join their band. I was really happy 400 Unit guitarist Sadler Vaden and drummer Chad Gamble RAVINIAMAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2 – SEPTEMBER 15, 2024 10 DANNYCLINCH