Throughout my day I’m listening to music, so I usually stick to the fun hard beats. I love the strut it puts in my step and the positive frame of mind it keeps me in. Songs like ‘One Mississippi’, ‘Wine, Beer and Whisky’, and ‘Never Say Never’ are heavy in my mental rotation.
This is why I always take notice of soft somber songs that stop me in my tracks and make me listen. This is what happens when I turn on ‘Only Children’ by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. The 3rd single of the 2020 album Reunions, Only Children is a very lush ramble about a childhood friend that’s not around anymore. From the haunting acoustic guitars that open the song, to Jason’s vocal that can only be described as ‘regretfully reminiscent’, it is one of the most beautiful songs in country music that I’ve heard in the last few years. Great storytellers can make a song come alive and as I listen to this song it paints a picture in my head. While the song is beautiful, the mental picture it evokes is dingy, rough, and almost dismal, but it’s painted clear as day.
Jason wrote the song while vacationing on the Greek island of Hydra and didn’t even realize it was about an old friend he had lost as a youth living in Alabama. At first, Jason didn’t want to include this song on the album until his wife heard it and made him add it in and she now considers it the heart of the album.
I’m not even a huge fan of Jason Isbell compared to my usual lineup but this song stuck with me from the opening riff and it’s a song that I have wanted to talk about and play on the air just once since the day I walked into the station 8 months ago and I want to see if anyone feels the same way. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Does it cause feelings? Throw a comment and let me know how you feel about it.
