Shut Up & Be Happy Jason Isbell is Sharing the Stage with Luke Bryan and Sam Hunt
On Friday (1-24), the Country Music Hall of Fame announced the lineup for their annual “All For The Hall” concert benefit set for April 12th at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. For years the event has been the Country Music Hall of Fame’s premier fundraising function, and has been headlined by Hall of Famer Vince Gill along with Keith Urban. Though the event is for the Hall of Fame, it regularly features a lineup of today’s stars as opposed to Hall of Fame talent.
This year the lineup is especially stacked with the superstars of today, with Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt, Florida Georgia Line, and Jason Isbell all joining forces to . . . wait, what? Who?
That’s right. Jason Isbell—a.k.a. the current King of Americana—has found his way onto one of the hottest tickets in Nashville, and name placement right beside the biggest-grossing acts in all of country music. Emmylou Harris, Maddie & Tae, and Maren Morris also help round out the “All For The Hall” lineup.
So what in the hell are well-versed country and Americana fans who finds themselves in stiff opposition to folks like Luke Bryan and Sam Hunt supposed to feel about ol’ Isbell sharing the stage with these turkeys? I’ll tell you what they should feel, they should shut up and be happy because it’s yet another sign that the good stuff is breaking through, and is getting its deserved due on Nashville’s biggest stages.
This isn’t the “Some for the Hall” benefit concert. Americana, the influence of East Nashville, and the rising action of artists of substance is a very real thing right now, and institutions like the Hall of Fame and the promoters of the event are wise to incorporate this momentum and include those fans in these functions. For too long the other side of the country music divide was not given any representation at all in the mainstream. Now the independent musicians have increased so much in market share and influence, it would be irresponsible to ignore them.
It’s not as if Jason Isbell is going out on the road with these guys. This is a civic, not-for-profit event with other artists volunteering their time to make sure the history of country music and one of the biggest archives of musical memorabilia is preserved and promoted.
Things are changing, and the idea that it’s a anomaly for a guy like Isbell to be included in something like this should change too. On Sunday (1-24), The Guardian reviewed one of Isbell’s recent concerts in the U.K. and called him “arena ready,” while still carrying enough intimacy in his music to connect with the crowd. This Hall of Fame benefit might very well be the biggest crowd Jason Isbell has ever played to.
Think pieces on how mainstream country is a wasteland and there’s no end in sight are so 2014. Chris Stapleton is the biggest artist in all of country music right now, and Jason Isbell is finally getting his due. Undoubtedly there’s still a tremendous amount of work to do and nobody ever said waging a revolution would be pretty, but balance is beginning to return to the mainstream. Who knows where we might see Jason Isbell turn up next?
ElectricOutcast
January 24, 2016 @ 7:48 pm
Another opportunity for mainstream fans to not only hear real Country but to hear an artist that’s not Chris Stapleton. (Just saying)
Acca Dacca
January 25, 2016 @ 12:47 pm
Yes, and yet another chance for a real artist to perform as part of an ensemble and show just how shallow and under-qualified everyone else is.
albert
January 24, 2016 @ 7:55 pm
Sure . I’m good with this . Maybe LB or Hunt or the Kruze Kids will finally get to hear what a REAL song sounds like .
Kross
January 24, 2016 @ 8:17 pm
I’m ok with it. I’m guessing these cats are already acquainted in one way or another. Worst case, LB, buys a few songs from Isbell, and he makes a boat load of money because of it.
Jt
January 24, 2016 @ 8:20 pm
The Elitist in me doesn’t like it one bit and the grudgeful person in me hopes the Pop crap acts on that billing will just quit when they realize how inept they are as musicians and artists after watching Isbell blow them off the stage and embarrass them…
Tony gunter
January 24, 2016 @ 8:47 pm
I never watch this crap anyway so thumbs down
Trigger
January 24, 2016 @ 8:56 pm
It’s never televised so you’re probably good there.
Lil Dale
January 24, 2016 @ 9:12 pm
shoot that ole jonny cum lately shud be thankin his lucky stars he gets to share the stage with a legend like luke the drifter.
Robert S
January 24, 2016 @ 9:18 pm
Speaking of Isbell, here’s Wynonna’s new song that Isbell is on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtCwb5D1uag
albert
January 24, 2016 @ 9:43 pm
Every once in a while a song comes along that gives me chills and restores my faith in the power of a great lyric . Thanks so much for posting this link Robert .One of the best songs that’s come my way in a LONG time .
ElectricOutcast
January 25, 2016 @ 6:46 am
Did y’all notice how well their voices meshed together on that song?
Robert S
January 25, 2016 @ 11:45 am
I agree, and will also add that songwriter Travis Meadows seems to be on a roll. He was also in on “Riser” by D. Bentley and “Knives of New Orleans” by E Church.
Kale
January 24, 2016 @ 10:24 pm
It’s still blasphemous for a pop reject like Sam Hunt to be associated with the Country Music Hall of Fame in any way.
witness
January 25, 2016 @ 1:05 am
So what if Sam Hunt’s album isn’t country? It’s still a pretty good album regardless of what genre you want to classify it as
Trigger
January 25, 2016 @ 10:25 am
I respectfully disagree. The only reason anyone is even paying attention to Sam Hunt is because he released his album in the country world. You release it in the pop world, and it dies (just like the single he released to pop radio).
witness
January 25, 2016 @ 10:51 am
Maybe, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good album regardless of genres. Pop critics seem to like it. I mean Billboard gave it 4/5 stars
Jacob B
January 25, 2016 @ 12:44 pm
It’s marketed as a country album. That’s the problem. If you judge it as a country album, it highly sucks. As a pop album, it sucks even more. It’s watered down pop with a banjo. Any serious music buyer would steer clear of this Vanilla Ice wannabes crap. It’s an insult to every real country music fan, that we have to endure this posers crappy music every time we listen to country radio. It would make me immensely happy not to hear or see this idiot again.
Acca Dacca
January 25, 2016 @ 1:04 pm
You’re missing the point Trigger was trying to make, one he and others have reiterated several times: Sam Hunt isn’t country, but he’s being sold as country. He’s a musical trojan horse if there ever was one, playing generic pop with a “country” genre sticker attached to his CDs at Walmart. The only reason he has a solid critical repute is because people that don’t normally listen to nor have any regard for real country music and its rich history hear something that has eschewed everything they dislike about this genre being sold as a part of it. To all of these journalists, Sam Hunt represents country music coming out of the “dark ages” of twang and into the modern world; 99% of real country listeners consider Sam Hunt and his ilk to BE the dark ages in and of themselves. A manifestation of pure evil.
You see, it’s all about marketing: next to the country crowd, Sam Hunt and his music look all daring and “new” because he’s so unlike anyone who’s come before, even the other pop country artists that most of us around here also dislike (ex. Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line, etc.) If you were to try and sell the exact same thing in the pop world where he belongs, he wouldn’t stick out, he’d only be seen as a mediocre member of the pack. Hunt isn’t doing a damn thing that’s especially original or unique with his music except for selling it in a genre where he doesn’t fit or belong, and somehow fooling millions of people along the way. The reason all of those critical ratings for his album are so high is because he’s being graded on a curve in the country realm by people who don’t like country music. It’s hard to gauge where something “new” fits into the grand scheme of things. If he were marketed and sold as pop, you wouldn’t even have heard of him. If anything, calling this wannabe sugar daddy a “country” artist is one of the most shrewd and prescient marketing campaigns of all-time, bar none.
Jake W
January 25, 2016 @ 2:06 am
I know you didn’t mean to but you wrote “Jason isbell is going out on the road with these guys”
ElectricOutcast
January 25, 2016 @ 6:34 am
That would actually be pretty hilarious if it happened
Trigger
January 25, 2016 @ 10:27 am
What I wrote is, “It’s not as if Jason Isbell is going out on the road with these guys.”
Fuzzy TwoShirts
January 25, 2016 @ 7:02 am
Unfortunately this will not appeal to Isbell’s fanbase.
Isbell fans who want to see him perform probably won’t want to sit through any bro ‘country.’
The end result is that Isbell will seem out of place in front of an audience that isn’t receptive to his music.
The bro fans are going to look more uncomfortable than Pavarotti at a Tiny Tim concert, while any Isbell fans will have to put up with ass shaking, pink umbrellas, and whatever on Earth Sam Hunt is.
Maddie and Tae and Maren Morris are inconsequential aa far as this goes, but what we’re going to see is a boycotting of the event by Isbell’s fans who hate pop country, and then he’s going to get up in front of a huge audience of people who aren’t familiar with (and maybe not accepting of) his body of work.
This just smacks of promoters who are totally unaware that Isbell fans and Sam Hunt fans don’t make good bedfellows.
And this summer I’m sure Luke Bryan will have something stupid to say about Americana. ‘I’m not an Americana singer, I’ve never ridden in a Hudson Commodore or been drunk on a plane flying over water.’
Brad
January 25, 2016 @ 7:29 am
Shocking news!!! Fuzzy thinks this is a bad thing.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
January 25, 2016 @ 7:49 am
Isbell is not going to benefit from this. His fans won’t go see Luke Bryan with a ten foot pole, meanwhile the bros are just going to get up and go drink illegally and screw each other on the balcony or drive around and around on a traffic circle like they do at every bro “Country” concert during his set.
Isbell may win over a few dozen fans but by and large he doesn’t belong on this stage, playing somebody else’s game.
The man deserves more respect than having to play for audiences who won’t appreciate him, just like Roy Clark should have been insulted to sing the anthem at a baseball game.
Mike W.
January 25, 2016 @ 8:32 am
I can see your viewpoint, though I would counter that my guess is this “All For The Hall” concert probably attracts a pretty affluent crowd, so my guess is it won’t be quite as bad as, well Isbell performing at WEFest or whatever.
I’m sure there will be a few low life, white trash populating the stands, but by in large my guess is this event is similar to the award shows the industry puts on with them trying to attract pretty affluent people to maximize attention being paid to the Country Music Hall of Fame and donations rolling in.
Brad
January 25, 2016 @ 8:40 am
Exactly Mike, this concert will more than likely not be filled with the normal crowd and I’m sure there will be plenty of people for Isbell to win over. It’s more than likely going to be short sets by each act and the bro country crowd isn’t going to shell out big dollars for 2 or 3 songs from their favorite acts. But it is Fuzzys job to ferret out any negative he can imagine.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
January 25, 2016 @ 8:48 am
Ferreting out negatives isn’t my job. I’m employed as one of Dr. Doom’s four horsemen of the apocalypse.
scott
January 25, 2016 @ 9:45 am
Four Horsemen? Now you’re talking. What’s it like hanging with Rick Flair, Tully Blanchard, and Arn Andersen? Never knew you were one of the Horsemen, I apologize.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
January 25, 2016 @ 10:03 am
No the other four horsemen: Death, Famine, War and Pestilence.
It’s not a glamorous job (we’ve been stuck for weeks trying to design a machine that can defeat the Hulk.)
Trigger
January 25, 2016 @ 10:30 am
Yeah, this is not a general audience event, though there may be some of those attendees. This is a civic gala-type event, so don’t expect the pit of screaming girls in front of the stage. There’s going to be a lot of industry, media, civic leaders, etc. here.
Dr. Doom
January 25, 2016 @ 11:01 am
Fuzzy, you are my Horseman of Death. Our current mission is to destroy Bro-Country and Metro-Bro and restore country music to its former glory. Oh, and that weapon that can destroy the Hulk? Luke Bryan’s dry humping move. It’s fatal to all who witness it.
Mandy
January 26, 2016 @ 8:58 pm
I attended 3 All for the Halls at Bridgestone (2011-2013), and by and large my impression was that the audience was just a really average arena country show audience. Tickets were affordable and it seemed to me that a majority of the audience was mostly there to see the big names (popular radio acts). The year that they had Kris Kristofferson and Jason Aldean in the lineup, Jason got by far the most enthusiastic audience reaction…while I took a bathroom break. Meanwhile it seemed hardly anyone cared when Kris sang Sunday Morning Coming Down. It’s always a weird show with a mixed lineup, but I always assumed they needed the big names on the ticket to actually accomplish their fundraising goals. I swear I could see Vince grimacing having to introduce some of them.
By the way, I gained a lot of respect for Eric Church at that show when I watched him (from my weird-angled seat) stand to the side of the stage during Kris’ entire set, just watching him the whole time.
MikeO
January 25, 2016 @ 8:37 am
I say just get on stage and totally outshine them. Leave no doubt at the end of the night who the alpha dog is. This actually sets up quite well for JI, he will have more talent in his pinky finger that the rest of that lineup.
Applejack
January 25, 2016 @ 4:27 pm
Bingo.
You nailed it.
cilla
January 25, 2016 @ 8:59 am
Trig, this is what you have been saying for a while…..eventually the pop-country with the “Bros” will have to adjust to the Talent of Isbel,Stapleton and perhaps Strugil because Now they are making noise and Nashville is looking to survive, so this just might be the “maturing” of the “bros” for the ones that want to survive in the next few years in COUNTRY music. This maybe a good thing for Some to Grow Up.(Thomas Rett,Luke Bryan,Jason Aldean,FGL)? Time will tell.
cilla
January 25, 2016 @ 9:04 am
By the way, Chris Stapleton was down in Mexico this weekend with Luke Bryan at “Crash my Playa”. Yes Chris was THE TALENT most talked about and Enjoyed his set….ain’t it funny how just one appearance on a national broadcast (CMA awards) can help Push a talented artist into mainstream.
Matty T
January 25, 2016 @ 9:15 am
This may be slightly off topic but I feel like it ties in so I’ll say that the only thing that sucks about having your favorite artists blow up and get bigger gigs is that it becomes more expensive and more difficult to see them play live but that’s the way it works. Anyways Isbell is more than deserving of this. This concert may be the only time the bros will hear decent music for the first time in a long time and if it means more people potentially abandoning the garbage that Music Row churns out then I’m all for it.
Mamma Coal
January 25, 2016 @ 12:30 pm
So cool! I’m just imagining all the folks who haven’t heard his music who will be stunned when they experience the power of his songs. Maybe they’ll get that teenage feeling of discovering great music for the first time. Maybe they’ll wonder why this kind of music has seemed to be hiding from them.
Jake W
January 25, 2016 @ 5:27 pm
Isbell has earned a pass as far as I’m concerned, lets just hope that this is about the event, or making these losers look bad. I hope this isn’t a strategy to get name recognition among d bags. Jason did say some music is trash in not so many words.
Everybody gets one.
JohnWayneTwitty
January 25, 2016 @ 5:57 pm
Maybe these talentless motherfuckers will learn a thing or two, if they’re not too busy kissing corporate ass and counting their ill-gotten money.
HelloWalls
January 26, 2016 @ 3:25 pm
I keep imagining a live national event where guys like Sturgill, Isbell, Hank 3,etc, get up on stage next to guys like Sam Hunt and leave Pop country in the fucking dust forever. If only people knew there was real meaningful music out there…
Ed Janiszewski
January 28, 2016 @ 8:59 pm
According to this article there will be no country music artists performing at the CMHOF funder raising event.
I understand not liking a particular artist or style but who cares about anyone else’s opinion of what is “good” or about anyone else’s definition of what is or isn’t “country music”.
It doesn’t matter. No one cares. The popularity of an act, artist or style is not an indicator of quality; likewise neither is the lack of popularity such an indicator. There are plenty of issues upon which we can and should be passionately divided, music isn’t really one of them. Discussion of whether or not an artist or act is deserving of their degree of popularity is rather pointless because no one cares about the opinions of those who descend into such discussions.