Artist 95 ::: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Genre ::: Southern Rock
Style matters, those who the band credit for their inspiration fused the vocal passion of African-American soul and gospel to an Anglo-Saxon storytelling tradition which goes back at least to Beowulf: Tough, hard, passionate, unflinching songs, unrepentant in their sense of place and direct in their stubborn Southernness.
Meet the band, then. Keyboard player Derry deBorja comes from the Baltimore area, and matriculated into the 400 Unit from a stint in Son Volt, which is where Jason met him. Guitarist Browan Lollar turned up at party, turns out to have just the right knack for Jason's songs. And bassist Jimbo Hart? "He's from Sheffield," Jason says. "I've known him since I was 16. My first image of Jimbo is him marching in a uniform playing bass with this huge kid behind him pushing his amp trying to keep up."
The band name orginated, because it's a good story and deserves telling, and the telling says what needs finishing here. Jason begins, "There is a mental treatment facility here in Florence called The 400 Unit. About once a week they would drive downtown and take, I guess, the six or eight healthiest people in the facility and let 'em go downtown. Give 'em all like $15 apiece to go get some lunch. You'd immediately recognize who it was and why they were there; they all had name tags on, saying kinda strange stuff to everybody. And trying to get a sandwich at the same time.
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