Jason Isbell: Last News

Greta Van Fleet‘s Josh Kiszka has publicly come out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.The frontman took to Instagram to write that he has been “in a loving, same-sex relationship with my partner for the past 8 years.” He also said that those close to him were aware but “it’s important to me to share publicly”.He explained that he chose to come out publicly in light of a surge in repressive, anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in his current home state of Tennessee.“Where I’ve settled a home in Tennessee, legislators are proposing bills that threaten the freedom of love. It’s imperative that I speak my truth for not only myself, but in hopes to change hearts, minds, and laws in Tennessee and beyond,” he wrote.A post shared by Josh M.

Niall Horan has set the stage to debut at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart this Friday with The Show.  

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Jason Isbell has a new album out, “Weathervanes,” and he says, “I’m happy to be talking about it. You know, I’ve been talking about a lot of other stuff lately, and it’s nice to actually discuss the job that I chose for myself.” Nothing against the Other Stuff on his part, mind you. He’s proud of the much-heralded HBO Max documentary that director Sam Jones made about him, “Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed,” even if it did open him and his wife, Amanda Shires, up to a huge amount amount of personal scrutiny. And he’ll sure be spending an even bigger part of the year than he is now talking about his dramatic role in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which he now feels confident did not leave him in the position of “be(ing) the one guy that screws up this $200 million movie.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic More than ever, rock stars were TV stars in 2023 — in the form of subjects for television documentaries — and so were their brethren in pop, hip-hop, K-pop and Latin music. Some of these TV films or docuseries were vanity projects used to promote new albums, of course; others started off as “making of” projects and ended up catching a star in a moment of real psychological crisis. It wasn’t all cinema verité; historical overviews capturing the full breadth of an artist’s career or even a genre still had their place in the pop-doc landscape. Four films or limited series stand out in the subgenre of docs that were initially commissioned to capture an album or tour and, through circumstances, evolved into something deeper or darker. “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me” (Apple TV+) was going to be a tour documentary, but then, when an emotional breakdown caused her to pull off the road, it became a portrait of a singer coming to terms with mental illness.

Actors and podcasters Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes allowed the cameras to turn on them during their celebrity-filled North American tour — the result of which is Smartless: On The Road, a limited series currently streaming on Max.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Margo Price and Charley Crockett emerged as leading nominees when the contenders for the 2023 Americana Honors & Awards were announced Tuesday in Nashville, with three nominations each. Allison Russell was close behind with two nods from the Americana Music Association voters. Picking up a single nomination each — tough enough, when there are only a scant six categories— were such highly regarded names of the genre as Billy Strings, Zach Bryan, Brandi Carlile, Tyler Childers, Angel Olsen, Sierra Ferrell, Nickel Creek, the War and Treaty, and Bonnie Raitt. Some of the more prominent names in Americana who have dominated the nominations in years past, like Jason Isbell, were between projects during the voting period. But the association is also known for wanting to promote fresh blood, which has resulted in artists who don’t necessarily have high mainstream media profiles, like Hermanos Gutiérrez, 49 Winchester, Caamp and Plains, landing slots in competitive categories.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, Amy Grant, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Maren Morris, Margo Price, Mickey Guyton, Kelsea Ballerini and dozens of other top Nashville musicians are calling for the Tennessee General Assembly to pass “common sense gun safety legislation” before lawmakers end their session a few days from now, according to a report in the Tennessean. (A complete list of signees is below.) The letter calls for extreme risk protection laws and legislation strengthening requirements around secure storage of firearms. The letter was drafted after of the deadly Covenant School shooting last month, in which three adults and three nine-year-old children were killed. It was the 19 th shooting at a school or university in 2023 alone — one of hundreds of mass shootings in a country with a government that, largely due to Republican obstruction, refuses to pass more-thorough gun-control laws.

Here’s the elevator pitch: follow wildly successful actors and podcasters Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes on a celebrity-filled North American tour.

When HBO hosted a special screening of Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, the intimate documentary about the singer-songwriter’s personal and creative journey during the making of his 2020 album Reunions, seemingly met with unanimous approval. But as applause and whistles rippled over the closing credits, one person sitting in the center of the theater was thinking, “I don’t think I want to watch it again for at least a decade.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In 2002, director Sam Jones made what is widely considered a benchmark for 21st century music documentaries with “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco,” a movie that lucked into just about all the subject matter that could make B-roll footage of the making of an album into A-list material. It had conflict within the band, between an auteur and another member of great talent; conflict with the soon-to-be-ex-record label, over the basically unwanted classic-to-be “Yankee Foxtrot Hotel”); and said auteur doing his own demon-wrestling, outside foils notwithstanding. Now, it’s easier to see that Jones’ good fortune in happening upon all that wasn’t all luck. More than 20 years later, Jones has come up with another gold-standard music doc, in the form of “Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed,” newly streaming on HBO Max. This time, as the creation of another amazing record — Isbell’s “Reunions” (recorded in late 2019 and released a few months later) — is put under the filmic microscope, there are no record-company bookkeepers as unseen baddies in the backdrop to a making-of. Major labels and the conflicts that come with them are so 2002, right? But one common thread is intra-band tension… as it probably will be in most good rock docs now or 20 years from now. It gets more interesting than that, though. In this instance, the difficult vibes are between bandmates who double as a married couple — Isbell and his fiddler-spouse, Amanda Shires. Here, unlike the by-now iconic beefing between Jay Tweedy and Jay Bennett, we know no one’s ultimately going anywhere, right?

Martin Scorsese‘s Killers Of The Flower Moon has received its theatrical and Apple TV+ release dates.The new film, which stars Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, will be released in select cinemas on October 6, before hitting the streaming service globally on October 20.Adapted from David Grann’s true-crime thriller of the same name, Killers Of The Flower Moon details the real-life killings of the native Osage people in 1920s Oklahoma, where oil deposits were discovered.De Niro plays powerful rancher William Hale, while DiCaprio plays his nephew, Ernest Burkhart. The rest of the cast features Lilly Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, and country music stars Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson.Jack White also features in the cast, but like the other musicians in the film, he won’t be playing music.The film has a reported budget of over $200million (£141,840), making it Scorsese’s most expensive project to date.

Madonna has added a Nashville date to her upcoming 2023 ‘Celebration’ world tour, with proceeds benefiting trans rights organisations.The concert is due to take place on Friday, December 22 at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, with Madonna adding a further seven dates to the US leg of the tour.Tickets for the newly announced dates go on sale at 10am local time this Friday, March 31. You can see full dates below and find tickets here.In a statement addressing recent anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, Madonna said: “The oppression of the LGBTQ+ is not only unacceptable and inhumane; it’s creating an unsafe environment; it makes America a dangerous place for our most vulnerable citizens, especially trans women of color.“Also, these so-called laws to protect our children are unfounded and pathetic.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic While most contemporary music documentaries fall into the realm of self-produced hagiography, no one will be making that charge about “Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed,” a clear-eyes/hearts-full documentary coming from HBO Max documentary that had its world premiere at the Grammy Museum. At a Q&A with Isbell and director Sam Jones following the screening of the film, which begins streaming April 7, moderator Colin Hanks, a big Isbell fan, asked the doc’s star: “What was it about this that made you go, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna do a doc,’ and really make yourself a little bit more raw than maybe you had even in your songs?”

While he started out as a member of the alt-country group Drive-By Truckers for six years, American singer-songwriter Jason Isbell has now won four Grammy Awards and become a beloved star in his own right. Isbell is famous for a lot of things, but maybe in the movie world, you may know him for writing the soulful, melancholy ballad “Maybe It’s Time” from the “A Star Is Born,” movie and soundtrack where it was performed by actor Bradley Cooper‘s character, Jackson Maine.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic A cast of mostly Nashville-based stars, including Maren Morris, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Yola, Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell — plus one key out-of-towner, the Irishman Hozier — joined up with a host of Tennessee drag artists Monday night in Nashville to protest recent state legislation aimed at cross-dressing performers, trans youth and same-sex marriage. The four-hour “Love Rising” benefit, which filled Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena with fans and LGBTQ+ community members and their allies, was also livestreamed to an international audience via the Veeps platform. No one received more of a hero’s welcome than Morris, who recently went out on a limb by standing up for trans youth and their families in a headline-making online debate with fellow country star Jason Aldean’s wife, Brittany Aldean, while most mainstream stars held their tongues. It was quickly evident that Morris has not turned into any shrinking violet as a result of the backlash she experienced from country fans on the right in the dust-up with the Aldeans, appearing on stage with a touch of androgyny in a look that combined legginess with formal black-tie. Morris performed her crossover hit “The Middle” while drag queen Alexia Noelle Paris accompanied her in an interpretive dance.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Love Rising” is looking to combat the deeply risible. Nashville-based musicians are coming together in a big way — a Bridgestone Arena-sized way — tonight for the show of that name, a benefit concert to raise awareness and funds for the LGBTQ community and its allies in the face of Tennessee legislation that is seen as targeting the rights of gay and trans people generally and drag performers specifically. The generously star-packed show is also being livestreamed internationally via the Veeps platform, with $14.99 tickets available here for a show that begins at 7:30 Nashville time, aka 8:30 ET/5:30 PT. The wide-ranging bill of rock, country, pop, indie and Americana performers includes Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Sheryl Crow, Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne, Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, Yola, Brittany Howard, Hozier, Adeem the Artist, Julien Baker, Joy Oladokun, Jake Wesley Rogers and Mya Byrne, along with co-organizer Allison Russell. Late additions to the show since it was first announced include a greater contingent of non-binary and, yes, drag artists from Tennessee on top of the nationally known names.

Leonardo DiCaprio has described Martin Scorsese‘s new film, Killers Of The Flower Moon, as a “masterpiece”.DiCaprio stars alongside Robert De Niro in the movie, which details the real-life killings of the native Osage people in 1920s Oklahoma, where oil deposits were discovered.Jacqueline West, the movie’s costume designer, who also worked with DiCaprio on The Revenant, recently recalled a conversation she had with the actor about Scorsese’s film.Speaking to Deadline, she said: “I was talking to Leo about it. We had lunch before I came here.

Paramore's Hayley Williams, plus Julien Baker, Brittany Howard, and Maren Morris are among the first names confirmed for Nashville's Love Rising, a live music event organized in response to Tennessee's ban on drag performances on public property. Other names confirmed for Love Rising include Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, Brothers Osborne, Yola, Allison Russell, and more. The event takes place on March 20 with proceeds going toward LGBTQIA+ programs, services, and resources across Tennessee.

Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell and Brittany Howard are set to perform at an LGBTQ+ benefit concert in Tennessee.The show entitled Love Rising, which has been organised by Isbell and Alison Russell, will take place at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on March 20.Other acts on the bill include Hozier, Brothers Osborne, Amanda Shires, Julien Baker, Joy Oladokun, Yola, Jake Wesley Rogers, and Mya Byrne.Tickets for the show are on sale now and can be purchased here. You can view the full line-up below.The concert was set up in the wake of Tennessee passing Senate Bill 3 and House Bill 9, two pieces of legislation that ban drag performances from taking place on public property, as well as in any location where minors can be present.“As a queer, intersectional artist and mother, raising my child in Nashville, it’s important to me to support these wonderful Tennessee LGBTQIA+ advocacy organisations, working so hard to build bridges, reduce harm and promote equality for all Tennesseans,” Russell said in a statement via Consequence.“LGBTQIA+ contributions and creativity are foundational to every genre of modern song and arts performance.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Tennessee’s aggressive legislative moves against drag performances have prompted a host of pro-LGBTQ artists from different genres to come together for a March 20 benefit concert at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, dubbed “Love Rising,” that will raise funds for the Tennessee Equality Project and several other local pride organizations. Among those taking part in the Bridgestone show are Maren Morris and Brothers Osborne, two artists that have spoken up about LGBTQ issues in the often quiet mainstream country world. Others on the bill from the rock, pop, Americana and alternative realms include Paramore’s Haylee Williams, Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, Allison Russell, Yola, Brittany Howard and Hozier. Julien Baker, Joy Oladokun, Jake Wesley Rogers, Mya Byrne and the Rainbow Coalition Band round out the packed lineup. Other special guests are expected to be added.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic David Lindley, a virtuoso guitarist and multi-instrumentalist best known to many for his work with Jackson Browne, as well as a recording and touring artist in his own right, died Friday at age 78. No cause of death was immediately given. The musician had been known to have been ailing for some time. A family member posted late last year that Lindley had been repeatedly hospitalized for kidney issues, pneumonia and influenza; a fundraiser that had been recently set up for Lindley and his family said his medical issues “seem to have begun with a terrible bout of Long Covid.” “The loss of David Lindley is a huge one,” tweeted Jason Isbell. “Without his influence my music would sound completely different. I was genuinely obsessed with his playing from the first time I heard it. The man was a giant.”