Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit Preview New Album Reunions with Rousing Lead Single “Be Afraid”

Music News Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit Preview New Album Reunions with Rousing Lead Single “Be Afraid”

Grammy-winning, Nashville-based singer-songwriter (and Twitter expert) Jason Isbell has announced a new album alongside his band The 400 Unit, Reunions, coming May 15 via Southeastern Records/Thirty Tigers. The seventh of its 10 tracks, lead single “Be Afraid,” is out now.

“Be Afraid” is an immaculately produced, Southern rock call to arms that exhorts Isbell & The 400 Unit’s fellow artists to be courageous and take action in the face of injustice. “Be afraid, be very afraid / Do it anyway, do it anyway,” Isbell cries in the song’s galvanizing choruses, insisting that those fortunate enough to have a voice speak up for those who don’t. At times, Isbell is introspective, reminding himself that many people, namely his own daughter, see him as a role model, and attempting to reckon with that responsibility.

“There are a lot of ghosts on this album. Sometimes the songs are about the ghosts of people who aren’t around anymore, but they’re also about who I used to be, the ghost of myself,” says Isbell. “I found myself writing songs that I wanted to write 15 years ago, but in those days, I hadn’t written enough songs to know how to do it yet. Just now have I been able to pull it off to my own satisfaction. In that sense it’s a reunion with the me I was back then.”

Produced by Grammy winner Dave Cobb and recorded at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A, and featuring background vocals from special guests David Crosby (Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Byrds) and Jay Buchanan (Rival Sons), Reunions is Isbell’s seventh studio album, and his fourth with The 400 Unit, aka Derry deBorja (piano, keyboard, organ, omnichord), Chad Gamble (drums, tambourine), Jimbo Hart (bass), Amanda Shires (fiddle) and Sadler Vaden (acoustic guitar, electric guitar), with whom he’s also put out two live albums. Their last studio collaboration, 2017’s The Nashville Sound, was one of that year’s best albums, and they followed it with 2018’s Live from the Ryman.

Isbell and his band will tour extensively this year in support of their new record, with plenty of U.S. dates on the docket, including two-night stands in New York City, Atlanta, San Francisco and Austin. Tickets for their newly confirmed shows go on sale this Friday, Feb. 14, at 10 a.m. local.

Listen to “Be Afraid” and watch Isbell & The 400 Unit perform at the Paste office circa 2010 below, then find the details of Reunions and the band’s tour dates further down. You can preorder the album here.

Reunions Album Art:

JI400U-ReunionsCover.jpg

Reunions Tracklist:
01. What’ve I Done To Help
02. Dreamsicle
03. Only Children
04. Overseas
05. Running With Our Eyes Closed
06. River
07. Be Afraid
08. St. Peter’s Autograph
09. It Gets Easier
10. Letting You Go

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit Tour Dates:

February
29—Tempe, Ariz. @ Innings Festival

March
26—Savannah, Ga. @ Savannah Music Festival
27—St. Augustine, Fla. @ St. Augustine Amphitheatre
28—Mobile, Ala. @ Saenger Theatre
29—Montgomery, Ala. @ Montgomery Performing Arts Center

May
22—Boston, Mass. @ Boston Calling
29—Bethel, N.Y. @ Mountain Jam

June
03—Philadelphia, Pa. @ Met Opera House*
04—Vienna, Va. @ Wolf Trap†
05-06—New York, N.Y. @Rooftop at Pier 17†
08-09—Durham, N.C. @ Durham Performing Arts Center‡
11-12—Atlanta, Ga. @ The Coca-Cola Roxy*
13—Manchester, Tenn. @ Bonnaroo
18—Milwaukee, Wis. @ Riverside Theater*
19—Minneapolis, Minn. @ The Armory*
20—East Moline, Ill. @ Rust Belt*
21—St. Louis, Mo. @ The Stifel Theatre*
23—Grand Rapids, Mich. @ DeVos Performance Hall*
25—Toronto, Ont. @ Meridian Hall*
26—Moon Township, Pa. @ UPMC Events Center*
27—Williamsburg, Va. @ Williamsburg Live at DeWitt Museum Lawn
28—Boone, N.C. @ Schafer Center for the Performing Arts (on-sale TBA)

July
18-19—Whitefish, Mont. @ Under The Big Sky Festival
20—Vancouver, B.C. @ The Orpheum#
21—Seattle, Wash. @ Paramount Theatre#
22—Portland, Ore. @ Theater of the Clouds#
24—San Francisco, Calif. @ The Warfield Theatre#
25—San Francisco, Calif. @ The Warfield Theatre#
26—Santa Barbara, Calif. @ Santa Barbara Bowl# (on-sale February 14 at 12:00pm local time)
28—San Diego, Calif. @ Humphreys Concerts By The Bay#
29—Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Greek Theatre#
31—Reno, Nev. @ Grand Theatre at Grand Sierra Resort#

August
01—Salt Lake City, Utah @ Eccles Theater#
02—Morrison, Colo. @ Red Rocks+
04—Bonner Springs, Kan. @ Providence Medical Center Amphitheater#
05—Little Rock, Ark. @ First Security Amphitheater#
07—Austin, Texas @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater#
08—Austin Texas @ACL Live at the Moody Theater#
09—Dallas, Texas @Bomb Factory#
29—Chicago, Ill. @ Wrigley Field

September
11-13—Bristol, Tenn. @ Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion

November
06—Oslo, Norway @ Spektrum
07—Stockholm, Sweden @ Stockholm Waterfront
08—Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega
10—Berlin, Germany @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
11—Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
14—Antwerp, Belgium @ De Roma
15—Koln, Germany @ Gloria
17—London, U.K. @ Eventim Apollo
18—Manchester, U.K. @ Albert Hall
19—Dublin, Ireland @ Olympia Theatre

(* with Strand of Oaks)
(† with David Crosby & Friends)
(‡ with The War & Treaty)
(# with Billy Strings)
(+ with Lucinda Williams)

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