Released for charity, this star-studded covers album celebrates music from the state of Georgia. It is a joyful affair with sadness lurking in the shadows.
Jason Isbell floated the idea of Georgia Blue just after Election Day 2020. As the country anxiously awaited the results, Isbell tweeted, “If Biden wins Georgia, I’m gonna make a charity covers album of my favorite Georgia songs.” As it happens, Isbell had been toying around with the idea for a while, long enough to create a rough setlist. After Biden took the state, thereby clinching his path to the presidency, that initial clutch of songs was fleshed out by friends and colleagues who were eager to participate: Brandi Carlile, for one, tweeted that she wanted to record the Indigo Girls’ “Kid Fears,” and John Paul White of the Civil Wars quickly offered his services. While other prospective pairings didn’t materialize, Isbell wound up with a rich cast of guests, ranging from legends like bluegrass picker Béla Fleck to emerging stars like singer-songwriter Brittney Spencer.
All of the cameos give Georgia Blue the slight air of an old-fashioned tribute album, the kind that blossomed during alternative rock’s peak in the 1990s. During that decade, tribute albums showcasing a songwriter, style, or trend for edification, entertainment, or charity were so commonplace they almost formed their own subgenre. The artists covered on Georgia Blue also strengthen the connection to alternative rock’s glory days. The album is bookended with two songs by R.E.M., the pride of Athens, Georgia, who also provided college rock’s moral compass during the ’80s and ’90s. R.E.M. is a center of gravity on Georgia Blue, too, as Isbell covers tunes by Drivin’ N’ Cryin’, Vic Chesnutt, and Now It’s Overhead, every one of them a former tourmate, peer, or associate of the band. Even the Black Crowes—whose rousing “Sometimes Salvation” is performed with the Crowes’ original drummer Steve Gorman—are part of R.E.M.’s orbit, as Chris and Rich Robinson, along with Gorman, cite them as a primary influence.
Threaded through the alt-rock covers are songs that feel closer to the traditional definition of Southern music: blues, R&B, soul, and Southern rock. Here, the 400 Unit get to flex their muscles, sounding equally at ease with soulful grooves and jazz-inflected jams. Generally, the older the song, the closer they stick to the original arrangement—but that's not a detriment. Guest vocalist Brittney Spencer enlivens both Gladys Knight & the Pips’ “Midnight Train to Georgia” and James Brown’s “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” adding new vibrancy to these familiar oldies. Similarly, keyboardist Peter Levin helps give the lengthy version of the Allman Brothers Band’s “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” a lively, limber swing, so that it never grows dull over the course of 12 minutes.
As good as these renditions are, the emotional heart of Georgia Blue lies in those alternative rock covers, songs where Isbell and the 400 Unit allow themselves some freedom of interpretation. With assistance from Béla Fleck and Chris Thile, Isbell warms and softens R.E.M.’s stark “Nightswimming,” pulling off a similar trick with “Driver 8,” this time with John Paul White. Isbell’s wife and bandmate Amanda Shires gives Cat Power’s “Cross Bones Style” a steely strength, while Isbell milks all the melodrama out of Chesnutt’s “I’m Through” and Brandi Carlile and Julien Baker turn the melancholic undertow of “Kid Fears" into catharsis.
Such emotional bloodletting doesn't necessarily sit easily next to either the roaring “Honeysuckle Blue,” a Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ standard here sung by Sadler Vaden, a former member of the band who is now a guitarist in the 400 Unit, or the easy ramble of Adia Victoria’s version of Precious Bryant’s “The Truth.” Yet the shifts in tone and style on Georgia Blue reflect a wide range of human feeling. At its heart, Georgia Blue is a joyful affair but there's sadness lurking in the shadows. Somehow, that's appropriate for an album conceived as a celebration during a time of crisis.
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