Live From The Ryman Vol. 2 (Southeastern, 2024)

Jason Isbell opens by telling the audience this is their 50th appearance at the legendary Ryman, a feat not many can equal. Moreover, it's the recent seven, eight and now 10-day residencies that Isbell and his band have experienced, a testament to the in-demand status of one of the best live performing bands of today. The multiple dates ensure that the listener is getting the best versions of 15 of Isbell's songs (the shows were 19 or 20 songs), culled from his two recent albums, 2020's "Reunions" and 2023's "Weathervanes' in performances over the last four to six years. For the most part, they stay faithful to those studio versions with a couple of surprises thrown in for good measure.

The credits list both new and older members of the 400 Unit. Bassist Jimbo Hart quit over a year ago for example. They are Isbell, keyboardist Derry deBorja, drummer Chad Gamble, guitarist Sadler Vaden and fiddler Amanda Shires, who has since split from Isbell and the band. New additions are bassist Anna Butterss, drummer/guitarist Will Johnson and percussionist Tyler Walker.

"King of Oklahoma" pulsates with thunder and brimming guitars as Isbell delivers his story song of a heist gone wrong. Yet, the strength of the album is a four-song sequence beginning with "The Last Song I Will Write," one of the few pre-pandemic songs, from his self-titled 2009 album and recorded in 2019. It features Shires, whose fiddle and harmonies with Isbell, burn more deeply knowing that the two have since divorced. In a rather clever sequencing the acoustic "Strawberry Woman," presumably about Shires, follows with classic Isbell lyrics such as "...Dancing on the table with a bloody nose/And you still look fine, you still look free/Strawberry woman with your back to me."

"Cast Iron Skillet," one of his best from "Weathervanes" gets a sterling treatment about his childhood/adolescent memories. "Miles," the made-for-live-performance gem from "Weathervanes," makes its concert debut and gets the all-out Crazy Horse rendering for a full eight minutes with Gamble and Johnson on double drums, capped off by Johnson's ringing gong. In a similar way, "This Ain't It' from the same album burns with white hot Southern Rock. Finally, there's his Petty cover, "Room at the Top," with his emotive vocals as he sings about the dissolution of marriage.

Top notch throughout, as you'd expect.