Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit and Ruby Amanfu Light Up the Mother Church

It’s been a little more than nine years since Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit headlined the Ryman for the first time. It was Aug. 17, 2013, just a couple of months after the release of the instant-classic Southeastern, the album that kicked off his post-sobriety ascent. The next year, he and the band sold out three nights and the annual residency grew from there. Since then, there have only been two years in which Isbell and his crew didn’t set up shop at the Ryman for several shows — 2016 and 2020, or the year of Donald Trump’s election and the year a pandemic drew the world to a standstill. Draw your own conclusions. 

When Isbell and the band took the stage Tuesday night for their fourth headlining set of this year’s eight-show run, they did so for the 39th time since that show back in 2013. There is something thrilling about the fact that, despite the vacuous and retrograde characters giving a bad name to the genre that built Nashville as a music center, Isbell has become a deacon at the Mother Church of Country Music.  

What’s also thrilling is the way he has used his annual residencies to share the stage with underrepresented and underrated artists, often women and artists of color. This year is no different. On Tuesday, Ghana-born longtime Nashvillian singer-songwriter Ruby Amanfu — introduced to many by “Love Interruption,” her 2012 duet with Jack White, and even more by her appearance on Beyoncé’s “Don’t Hurt Yourself” — opened the show with a set that seemed to grip the audience more tightly with each song. Fresh off the release of the fourth, fifth and sixth volumes of her The Collections series, Amanfu was backed by a band including her husband, songwriting partner and producer Sam Ashworth. Her voice, by turns delicate, haunting and powerful, hovered above pop-soul-folk arrangements. Isbell came out to join her on “Heaven’s My Home,” a song from 2009’s The Here and the Now by her and Sam Brooker's erstwhile duo Sam & Ruby. That was a highlight, as was Amanfu’s genuine gratitude to be back at a venue where she too has played many times before. 

Isbell & Co. opened their 19-song set with “It Gets Easier,” an anthem about being and staying sober from 2020’s Reunions. From there, they bounced around the catalog, performing mainstays from 2015’s Something More Than Free (“24 Frames,” “How to Forget” and “Speed Trap Town”), 2017’s The Nashville Sound (“Last of My Kind,” “If We Were Vampires” and “Hope the High Road”) and two from Georgia Blue, the 2021 covers album they recorded following the 2020 election (Drivin N Cryin’s “Honeysuckle Blue,” sung by 400 Unit guitarist and onetime DNC member Sadler Vaden, as well as R.E.M.’s “Driver 8.”). In between, as is his standard practice, Isbell introduced the members of his band. During one break between songs, as some techs fiddled with the gear behind him, Isbell introduced keyboardist Derry DeBorja. Per Isbell’s anecdote, it seems he once unknowingly dosed himself with LSD at a music festival and spent the day wandering around in a daze — until he ran into DeBorja, who he then asked to join his band.  

The set also included several songs from the aforementioned Southeastern, including the near-death tale of a hard-partying road musician, “Super 8,” and romantic force of nature that is “Cover Me Up.” The latter was performed without Isbell’s wife and frequent bandmate Amanda Shires. Many nights she’s joined in on fiddle for this song, but she’s currently on tour with her eighth solo LP of phenomenal songs Take It Like a Man; she and her band will be at the Ryman to open Friday’s show.

Beyond the enrapturing experience of seeing a band at the peak of their powers, one reason to come back to Isbell’s shows at the Ryman again and again — and even to see multiple shows per year — is for the chance to see him perform songs he rarely performs live. He promised two of those in a tweet on his day off on Monday and kept his word Tuesday night with tunes he penned during his time in the Drive-By Truckers. 

The group closed the show with “Danko/Manuel,” a poignant reflection on two members of The Band, one of the biggest touchstones in the Americana pantheon. Earlier on, they played “TVA,” surely one of the best songs ever written about the life-altering significance of government infrastructure projects. It’s a great example of what makes Isbell such a vital voice in Southern music. He celebrates the history and culture of this complicated region while reckoning with its flaws and insisting that it can be better — that you can acknowledge, and even love, your roots without wanting to stay stuck in the same old dirt. Amen.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Ruby Amanfu's bandmate in Sam & Ruby as Sam Ashworth. We regret the error.