It was just like your garage band's Sunday afternoon jam session, but better. During the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco last weekend, Jason Isbell took a pause at the end of his set to welcome "a good friend" to the stage for "a rock 'n' roll number," and on cue, Ryan Adams appeared from the wings, plugging in his black Les Paul.
With help from Isbell's band The 400 Unit, they kicked out a stellar rendition of "Sway," the cut that makes the comedown segue between the lecherous boogie of "Brown Sugar" and the aching ballad "Wild Horses" on the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers. 400 Unit guitarist Sadler Vaden took the first solo, a ripping bottleneck slide display that the cameras all but missed, which Isbell and Adams followed up by trading solos to end the tune. Check that out above.
Isbell returned the favor, appearing with Adams and his band The Shining for "Oh My Sweet Carolina." The video includes that song as well as the two before it, "Let It Ride" and "To Be Young." Around 6:40, Adams announces that Isbell will join them, and someone in the crowd calls out something that sounds like "Freebird!"
"We can't play 'Freebird'," replies Adams. "It's too hard! There's too many notes."
"Well, Jason's onstage," quips Adams' longtime collaborator and Shining guitarist Mike Viola.
"Jason can probably play it," Adams agrees. "Jason knows music." And how! Check out the whole thing below.
