Huge fan and see him every time he rolls through town, even have tickets for his summer tour.
With that being said, why did we need this documentary?

Amanda Shires is annoying af. And not very good at fiddle if you ask me.

For me personally Amanda seems insufferable but who am I kidding...

Still wood!

Disco Stu said:

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I had honestly never listened to his music before. I started watching the documentary this morning. He's got great lyrics. His childhood has clearly messed him up pretty well.

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He's got a ton of great songs but I really love this one:



His most famous is probably "Cover Me Up." Unfortunately Morgan Wallen covered it so a bunch of people think it's a Wallen song.

Ag_07 said:

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For me personally Amanda seems insufferable but who am I kidding...

Still wood!

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Agree. But so does Jason if I'm honest.

haven't seen the doc but got to see him with the truckers a couple of different times and the Dirty South tour was the top show i've ever seen (i've seen hundreds of shows). Southeastern was a masterpiece, and i'll say everything he's done after that has been one big bag of "meh" from me. All the woke ass white guilt stuff really was a turn off for me and then he went completely nuts on the covid stuff.

I've always suspected Shires to be a culprit of all the latter complaints and from the comments on her on this read i'm guessing I'm not far off.

That said, i'll watch this because he's earned it by his early career.

mavsfan4ever said:

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Ag_07 said:

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For me personally Amanda seems insufferable but who am I kidding...

Still wood!

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Agree. But so does Jason if I'm honest.

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Yeah they both seem like they are pretentious ******bags. Extremely talented pretentious ******bags though.

After watching, I found myself less annoyed by Jason than I would have guessed and more annoyed by Amanda.

So i watched it last night and figured i'd come back and update after i actually viewed it.

I don't change much of my opinion. Just want to add that Isbell appears to be a pretty nice guy with some fairly common issues (former fat kid, child of divorce) that can turn anyone into submissive self doubt machine. Pair that with booze and your have the recipe for a pretty self destructive personality (i can speak to that. I have a somewhat similar background).

Shires comes off as an absolute tw*t in this and shows her narcissism from the first 3 minutes (her interviews with those dumb glasses are horribly cringeworthy). And i'll give her credit for helping him get his stuff together and get sober, a lot of her comments are only about herself and she spends almost the entire time focusing on how things affected her.

Here's the thing, she saved his life. I'll give her that, but his music never needed saving. He's 1000x the writer and musician she is and no amount of creative writing masters degrees and violin lessons will ever change that. I think she has trouble accepting this and tries to get in there and make her mark. She's not a good violin player and even the way she plays is in a way to bring her attention. It's too loud, not good, and too much.

Great doc and the dude absolutely still has his writing fastball but it kind of showed me that she's kind of become redundant and as a result, bitter

Shires seems like a chore, but she also seems like an easy scapegoat for those that don't like "the new Jason Isbell". I mean, that was a "documentary" and you think she signed off on how it portrayed her? It was cut to make her look that way.

If I'm not mistaken it was even before Shires that Isbell was throwing out the "if someone yells out to play 'Outfit' then I purposely don't play it".

Based on some of the DBT interviews, while his drug/alcohol abuse certainly was the biggest reason he was asked to leave the band, he was also simply regarded as an *******.

I mean, he "consulted a musicologist" because he believed one of Dierks Bentley songs sounded too much like one of his own... That wasn't Shires.

And hell, he basically ditched his "helped save my life" buddy Ryan Adams when it no longer looked too good for his image.

I love Southeastern, and I even love a lot of the newer stuff. And he seems like a guy that could be fun to sit down and shoot the **** with. But Shires isn't the reason he's a ******.

This was my initial takeaway when watching the doc. I was thinking to myself, neither of these people seem super likable. Still enjoyed watching it though.

Finally watched this last night. I braced myself based off some of the comments on here, but DAMN some of you all are harsh arse critics!

To me neither of them came off bad and it was an open and honest examination.

Shires doesn't come off as know it all or beachy to me. Someone here mentioned her referencing her masters in writing and it's literally brought up once and not even by Isbell or Shires and it's in reference to a grammatical debate. It's also after it's stated that Isbell relies on her to be his harshest critic AND she ends up being right about the grammar.

Overall my take away is that it is very hard to be a genius and it's hard to be married to one. I think most of us would agree he is one in the song writing arena. He's married to Shires because his is not the type of personality that could be married to a push over. He talks about getting sober because he knew she wouldn't put up with his sheet. He needs someone to stand up to him when he needs it and she provides that. The biggest disagreement is when he starts to become touchy and edgy but won't admit it's because he feels pressured/worried/anxious. She calls him on it and communication breaks down. Ultimately though he admits he was wrong and they grow stronger for it. It's a testament to how hard it must be to be in the same profession as your husband/wife and even more so when you often play in each others bands.

Whatever a-hole tendencies he has he seems very aware of and willing to address. If you want to see a story about an genius that really is an ******* go watch The Last Dance. I would NOT have wanted to be Jordan's teammate, but I would absolutely be in Isbell's band.

One of the reason's I love Isbell is because of who he is. He is someone who is constantly curious, takes on new perspectives with new information, and will admit when he is wrong and will change. It ends on a great example of that with the discussion on "Cover Me Up" and how he never considered how singing about their low points might make Shires feel because he never considered things from anyone else's perspective but his own. He wasn't afraid to say "You know what, you're right."

I also love that he puts his money where his mouth is. He has talked about how being married to Shires opened his eyes to sexism in the industry. Not because of any societal pressure, but because he would see Shires deal with venues/managers/industry people that he has dealt with and literally hear their phone conversations and how differently they treated her in the same situations. After that he began to speak about female artists and promoting them. He also spoke out about encountering a number of americana singers of color and how he felt they didn't get the exposure they deserved, so a few months later when he headlined the Ryman for a week he put them on the bill and gave them exposure. I respect that.

He's also a great example of how people today argue so much over perception instead of reality. The doc ends with Covid and how all the band members feel depressed over losing what drives them (playing live). So when things started to open up Isbell implemented policies to protect his living. Then people explode "He's a woke liberal ****** requiring vaccines!!!" when that isn't true. He required a proof of vaccine OR a negative test. Nobody was asking people to get a vaccine. You don't want one? Great! Just go get a negative test, which by the way is free.

Long story short I think however you feel about him coming into this doc is probably what you'll feel about him after.

Jim01 said:

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he would see Shires deal with venues/managers/industry people that he has dealt with and literally hear their phone conversations and how differently they treated her in the same situations.

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I'm not in the industry so I can't say there isn't sexism there, but this sentence bugs me. There is no "same situation" between Isbell and Shires. He has a bigger fanbase and broader reach that her, and has been significantly more successful than her. I don't think the industry as a whole is trying to keep her or other female artists down. If they thought she could sell more records than him or pack venues they'd probably treat her better than they do him. I am sure Taylor Swift or Beyonce have completely different conversations with the venues/managers/industry than Isbell has. Not because they are women, but because they are both WAY more successful than he is.