Jason Isbell follows his own path with 400 Unit

Joshua Black Wilkins

Jason Isbell (front) is seen with his band, 400 Unit. The guitarist and songwriter attended the University of Memphis before embarking on his career in music.

Although he's written his fair share of songs about rebels, rogues and miscreants, Jason Isbell doesn't consider himself one of them. "I don't think being a musician necessarily means you have to be a jackass," Isbell says with a laugh.

The former Drive By Truckers guitarist, now leading his own band, the 400 Unit, will be playing a post-Thanksgiving show with local favorites North Mississippi Allstars tonight at Minglewood Hall.

Isbell is no stranger to the Bluff City, as the Alabama native attended the University of Memphis from 1997 to 2001.

"I've think I've got one class left to take," Isbell says. "Human Fitness and Wellness. I actually took it once. It was a book class, and it was talking about calories and exercise, one of those mandatory lectures with 200 people in there. It was one of the most disgustingly boring things I ever did in my life, and I walked out halfway through the semester."

Although he was largely focused on his literature studies in school,

Isbell always anticipated a career making music.

"That was the plan. In fact, that's the whole reason I wanted to be an English major, was to be able to read a whole lot and write a whole lot so I could get better at writing songs," he says.

Still, Isbell played only a handful of gigs in Memphis during his college years, doing the odd solo spot at some Downtown coffeehouses.

"But I went and saw a lot of shows. I saw Rufus Thomas and Isaac Hayes and a bunch of the old blues guys when they were still kicking, still around," Isbell says.

"(Memphis) was always an important part of my musical education — even not considering the fact that I lived there. But I just didn't involve myself in the music scene that much then; I wasn't ready for it yet."

Within weeks of leaving school in 2001, however, Isbell started playing with the Drive By Truckers' leader, Patterson Hood. That fall, Isbell officially joined the Truckers.

He would spend the next five years on the road and in the studio with the Truckers, turning the band into a family affair when his then-wife, Shonna Tucker, joined the group in 2003.

Isbell would solidify and, in some ways, help define the Truckers' epic Southern rock sound, completing the band's three-guitar frontline. But by 2006, amid his divorce from Tucker and growing creative differences, Isbell left to start the 400 Unit, which includes Memphian Chad Gamble on drums.

"It all worked out the way it was supposed to," says Isbell, who reunited with the Truckers onstage earlier this year during a show in Huntsville.

"They probably would've found a certain level of popularity and creative success whether I came along or not. I don't think it would've been exactly the same, obviously. But they were on the right path then and still are now," he says.

"I don't regret joining the band. I had a great time. We made some great records that wouldn't have been possible with any other combination of people," he adds.

"That's the most important thing for me looking back: Records like Decoration Day and The Dirty South, had they been created with even one person different in the equation, they would've been completely different albums. So I'm glad that all exists in the form that it does."

Since leaving the Truckers in '06, Isbell has found his own path, recording three albums that take his music in a more soul- and pop-rooted direction, but which still included finely etched narratives, like those on his most recent song cycle, Here We Rest. Even as his music has evolved, plenty of fans from his Truckers days have followed him along the way.

"A lot of people gave me an opportunity because of the songs they'd heard that I did with that band," he says. "Any way you can get people to listen to your music and get a fair shot at appreciating it, then I'm all for it."

Although he's maintained a solo sideline — he recently played some one-man gigs opening for Ryan Adams and has further dates planned with John Prine — Isbell says the 400 Unit remains his preferred mode of making music.

"I like the camaraderie of a band. I enjoy traveling around with people I know and like, running with my friends," he says. "For the most part, I always consider myself part of a rock band; that's the most fulfilling way to go about my work."

Jason Isbell, North Mississippi Allstars

8 tonight at Minglewood Hall, 1555 Madison. Tickets are $22, available at the box office, minglewoodhall.com or (901) 312-6058.

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