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Sirens Of The Ditch
Amazon Price
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New from | Used from |
Audio CD, Import, 13 July 2018
"Please retry"
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$18.10 | — |
Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, 10 July 2007 |
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$19.95 | — |
Vinyl, Import, 31 January 2012
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$25.52 | — |
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Product Dimensions : 14.2 x 13.11 x 0.71 cm; 70.02 Grams
- Manufacturer : NEW WEST RECORDS
- Item Model Number : 3374935
- Original Release Date : 2007
- SPARS Code : DDD
- Label : NEW WEST RECORDS
- ASIN : B000QUU2UW
- Number of discs : 1
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Best Sellers Rank:
52,393 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
- 85 in Roots Rock
- 98 in Southern Rock
- 249 in Alt-Country & Americana
- Customer Reviews:
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Product description
Accomplished guitarist and songwriter Jason Isbell, formerly of Drive By Truckers (DBT), releases his debut solo album Sirens Of The Ditch.
The album rocks with 11 tracks all written by Isbell kicking off with "Brand New Kind Of Actress", followed by the rocker "Down In A Hole", a swampy number featuring Muscle Shoals natives Spooner Oldham and David Hood. Isbell s songwriting skills shine especially on "Dress Blues" a pensive ballad about a high-school classmate who lost his life fighting in Iraq and "Chicago Promenade" a tribute to his late Grandfather.
Listeners caught glimpses of Isbell s skills on Drive-By Truckers records with tracks like "Danko/Manuel" and "Outfit".
Sirens Of The Ditch's mystical quality can be partially attributed to the FAME recording studio (Aretha Franklin, Duane Allman, Otis Redding) in Isbell s hometown of Muscle Shoals, AL where the album was recorded. A lot of old soul musicians came through here in the late 60s and 70s and helped define the Muscle Shoals sound, the lifelong Alabamian explains, so that influence was always in my environment, but on this record I really tried to capture that.
Co-produced by Isbell and Patterson Hood (DBT), Sirens Of The Ditch features Isbell singing lead vocals and playing guitar throughout, joined by Shonna Tucker (DBT) on Bass and Brad Morgan (DBT) on drums. Several musicians pop in for cameos including Spooner Oldham and David Hood (Patterson s father) on "Down In A Hole", John Neff (DBT) on "Dress Blues" and Patterson himself guests on "Shotgun Wedding".
Customer reviews
Top reviews from other countries

In my opinion none of the tracks on this collection reaches the heights achieved by the best of Isbell's DBT songs such as Decoration Day, Goddamn Lonely Love or Easy On Yourself. Nevertheless, in its own way this is an excellent piece of work, with catchy tunes and an eclectic set of styles from the Stones to Stax via Country and Heavy Blues/Rock.
There are some nice appearances from a variety of mates, including Shonna, Patterson and Brad (what, no Cooley?) from DBT, ex-MGs keyboardist Spooner Oldham, and David Hood, Patterson's old man, I believe.
Some impressions of a few of the tracks.
Brand New Kind Of Actress opens the set with a sound reminiscent of the Stones and some catchy lyrics. Next, Down In A Hole is given a soulful backing by Oldham's B3.
Try is a blues reminiscent of Robert Johnson's approach to song construction, or maybe Lucinda Williams. Interestingly I notice that, while I would put them on the same shelf, my Windows Media Player shows Isbell's Sirens as Rock and Williams's West as Folk. Not sure how that works. A&R moves in mysterious ways, I guess.
The poignant lyrics on Dress Blues will move you whether or not you backed the Iraq intervention. It should, anyway. This is one of the stand-outs for me. It's Country, not Rock, with some affective pedal steel, and it's about the premature death of a young marine - "You never planned on the bombs in the sand, or sleeping in your dress blues" - and his funeral.
Grown, whose lyrics provide the CD title, reminds me of Steve Miller, I think possibly because of the repeated "wha-o-oo" at the beginning of the chorus, but also Isbell's voice and the rhythm.
Hurricanes And Hand Grenades features some great lyrics. It's a blues/soul composition with some nice guitar and gospel organ in the background courtesy of Tommy Patterson. A bit of a barroom piece. Kind of "set `em up Joe" feel about it; an echo of Goddamn Lonely Love. I get the feeling that a few years ago Rod Stewart could have covered it well. Nowadays let's keep it away from him!
In A Razor Town is a thoughtful country ballad with some great slide and dobro, Shonna Tucker's backing vocals are just right, and together with the closer, The Devil Is My Running Mate, this is one of the other two standouts. This last song on the CD is delivered, courtesy of multitracking, by Isbell on his own playing all the instruments and singing. It's slow, with some forceful acoustic guitar to the fore.
In the final analysis, a worthwhile addition to the collection. Nothing bad, and some songs I reckon will prove to be built to last. Disappointing though that nobody saw fit to include lyrics in the packaging. They'd be worth having in print.

Excellent songs performed superbly.
A must-have album for Southern Rock/Americana enthusiasts.


