Arguably the headmaster of this underclass since his arrival on the scene as an underage and overserved backup guitarist is Jason Isbell, lately known as “The Poet Laureate of The New South.” When Isbell joined the well-established and well-lubricated southern rock act Drive-By Truckers in 2002, the band was searching for to switch the latest departure of guitarist Rob Malone. Along with gaining a hotshot guitar slinger, the band nearly unwittingly acquired the most effective songwriters of a era, penning the songs “Ornament Day,” “Danko/Manuel,” “The Day John Henry Died,” “Goddamn Lonely Love” and a handful of different gems recorded by the band.
Whereas lots of Isbell’s compositions are up to date Faulknerian tales of unhappy sacks in Southeastern bars, considering leaving city to flee an overbearing invalid father, or planning an ill-advised heist of copper at a job web site that goes awry, lots of the deeper songs revolve round love, whether or not the youthful ardour of “Cowl Me Up” or the mature longing of “If We Had been Vampires,” and a number of the finest contain refined life classes like “If It Takes a Lifetime” or the thinly-veiled recommendation to his daughter in “One thing to Love.” Over the course of his recordings, Isbell has been engaged on a track cycle of “Do not” songs–three songs that explicitly element the knowledge incurred by a life strongly lived, with various ranges of applicability.
“Do not name what you are sporting an outfit”
When Jason Isbell joined Drive-By Truckers, they have been a fully-functioning unit coming off of the unbelievable double album Southern Rock Opera which established the band as not solely a viable touring act with a Skynyrd-level tie to the duality of the Southern factor. Whereas Isbell might have been initially thought to be a six-string stand-in, his depth as a songwriter was shortly acknowledged and appreciated alongside the regular pens of Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley. Of his early work, none of Isbell’s songs are as beloved by followers as “Outfit” from 2003’s Ornament Day.
Advised from the attitude of a doubtlessly reluctant father, “Outfit” reads nearly like a goodbye observe handed ashamedly to a son. In it, the narrator gives a life story concerning the decisions he made (promoting his Mustang for a marriage ring after getting his woman knocked up, working dead-end manufacturing facility jobs earlier than settling for a special dead-end job portray homes for his father’s portray firm). Embedded on this autobiography are some heartfelt truisms. Do not inform folks your automobile is “broke”–not for the grammatical mis-step, however as a result of both you must know the precise purpose (alternator or transmission is shot), or that as a Southern man, your automobile would by no means be damaged within the first place. Do not be pretend and lose your accent, and keep near your loved ones by calling your sister on her birthday. Do not do onerous medication.
Written when Isbell was solely 21, the track belies a worldliness that he could not presumably have earned however in some way succinctly defines. The snapshot of his narrator’s universe is small and simply-defined. Household, work, duty, and in some way making an attempt to battle your means out of your station to create a greater life. The track is gorgeous in its heavy-handed broad-brush portray of a fictional however wizened smalltown father who has recommendation that he is aware of his son most likely will not take. It’s heartening and heartbreaking all of sudden.
“Do not wash the forged iron skillet”
Over the next twenty years, Isbell has dropped nuggets of knowledge in to his songs all alongside. “I hope you discover one thing to like/One thing to do if you really feel like giving up” and “Simply discover what makes you content woman and do it ’til you are gone” in 2017’s “One thing to Love” and “Be afraid, be very afraid/However do it anyway” on 2020’s Reunions, however they have been laid most naked on the 2023 observe “Forged Iron Skillet” on Weathervanes
The track has some quite simple bits of recommendation that may very well be present in a well-thumbed lavatory copy of Reader’s Digest or a Bazooka Joe comedian. “Do not wash the forged iron skillet/Do not drink and drive, you will spill it” and “Do not stroll whеre you’ll be able to’t see your ft.” Alongside these platitudes is a narrative of a Southern woman who finds real love with somebody who’s a special colour than she is and her racist smalltown father by no means speaks to her once more. In each “Outfit” and “Skillet” Isbell intertwines a fictional and difficult life story with fragments of recommendation he has picked up and needs to impart on his viewers.
“Do not be robust till you must/Let love knock you in your ass”
On his 2025 album Foxes within the Snow, Isbell put aside the complete band and determined to make his most John Prine-esque report but. Simply him and his voice and his guitar, telling the identical tall tales of misplaced love, new romance, onerous luck tales of damaged males and dusty barrooms. The songs on the album really feel extra private than his earlier releases, partially due to the intimacy of the recording setting, and partially due to his real-life life story influencing the subject material. Tucked into within the tracklist is a 3rd “Do not” track known as “Do not Be Powerful” which rounds out our trilogy.
Whereas the primary character of “Outfit” confirmed a presumably undeserving maturity, the lecturer in “Do not Be Powerful” is a bit more simplified. Someway rising older has rounded a few of Isbell’s edges, providing recommendation like “Do not be shitty to the waiter/He is had a tougher day than you” and “Do not make infants keep up later/Simply because they’re so rattling cute” and even “And in the event you get to feeling lonely/Learn out loud in the event you can learn” or (oof) “Take a nap in the event you get sleepy/In case you’re hungry, attempt to eat” which all really feel a bit of extra Hallmark Card or “Hen Soup for the Poet Laureate of the New South’s Soul” than his earlier traces about avoiding needle medication, damaged blades, or threatening to shoot a canine if it bites his child.
On the identical time, Isbell offsets these sweetly trite soundbites with extra succinct and thought-out classes like “Do not be robust till you must” and “Do not forget the shit you went by way of.” Much more tellingly, recommendation like “Life will kill you in the event you let it/So if you’re down, then say you are down” really feel easy, however require loads of self-awareness and fragility that the proprietor of the 302 Mach 1 Mustang might by no means have discovered.
What recommendation will likely be supplied in future “Do not” songs? Does this need to impart knowledge proceed on future albums? Will the octogenarian Isbell give recommendations on hoverboards or oatmeal within the 12 months 2059? My suspicion is that followers will nonetheless be prepared to hear, even when it takes a lifetime.
