Jason Isbell talks music and Merle prior to Macon concert

Grammy-Award winning musician Jason Isbell is coming to the City Auditorium on Wednesday. He spoke to The Telegraph about representing the South, finding inspiration and Kendrick Lamar.

Telegraph: You have a lot going on right now: touring Europe, winning two Grammy-Awards, a new baby.

Isbell: It’s what I signed up for, it’s my whole life. The touring hasn’t been as grueling as is used to be. We still do quite a lot of shows, but not 200 like we used to have to do to keep the lights on. I haven’t been as exhausted as I used to be.

Telegraph: What is it like being a Southerner abroad?

Isbell: You wind up in a few arguments here and there. People in other countries don’t understand the dynamics of the United States. So I wind up defending myself occasionally. But I think everybody has a soft spot for American music, and really the good stuff, the real heart of American music, comes from the South originally so that becomes a bit of a passport for us and a way for us to make friends no matter where we are.

Telegraph: Many Georgians know you from the six years you played with Drive-By Truckers.

Isbell: I think we made a lot of good music in that band, and it was the first touring I had done. Certainly it helped build an audience when I went out on my own. A lot of people were willing to give me a chance from the start. But it wasn’t like I took all those fans. When I first started out with this band, we had a lot of shows where hardly anybody was there, we weren’t making any money, we spent a lot years touring in a van and playing sometimes for 30, 40, 50 people. That’d be a good night in a lot of towns. So we had to rebuild in a lot of ways and work from the ground up again, which is good. Now we have good audiences pretty much everywhere, and it’s not something that we take for granted.

Telegraph: Where do you get your inspiration?

Isbell: You know, I think inspiration is kind of nonsense to tell you the truth. I mean, what inspires a plumber? Or anybody who is doing a job and is trying to do the best they can? I think it’s the motivation that’s hard to find sometimes. As far as being inspired, if you’re not inspired, you’re not paying attention. That’s part of being a songwriter: paying attention to the world around you. It’s really easy to find things to write about, especially these days. If you can’t find something that interests you on a daily basis, you aren’t living right at all.

Telegraph: What kind of music do you listen to?

Isbell: My wife and I just went and saw Lucinda Williams last night. I think she’s a really great artist and one of the best songwriters that we have really. I really like the most recent Ben Howard record. I’ve been listening to that a whole lot. He’s a really talented guy. The Kendrick Lamar record was great. That was the coolest thing I saw at the Grammys was his performance.

Telegraph: That’s a very different genre.

Isbell: It is, but do you know people who just listen to one genre of music? It used to be that way, but now it’s so easy to get your hands on good music. Now, there’s certain kinds of music that I’m not qualified to make. I wouldn’t go around trying to make a hip-hop album, but I’ll listen to it. I think there are a lot of really great artists in that world.

Telegraph: You won’t be playing with Merle Haggard when you come to Macon like you originally planned.

Isbell: Yes, Merle died. I’m sad that it went down the way it did, because I was very much looking forward to seeing Merle play again. I imagine between myself and Tommy (Emmanuel), one of us will play some of Merle’s music.

Telegraph: Have you played with Haggard before?

Isbell: We’ve done a couple of festivals together. The last time I saw him was at Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July picnic in Austin (Texas) last year, and it was great. It was really good to see him with Willie and Kris Kristofferson and all those guys. It’s a really good memory.

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Jason Isbell talks music and Merle prior to Macon concert."