Cover Me Up: Jason Isbell's 'Southeastern' Set for Expansion

Cover Me Up: Jason Isbell’s ‘Southeastern’ Set for Expansion

Jason Isbell Southeastern 10 cover — BUY NOW FROM AMAZON.COM

Already enjoying a burgeoning solo career after his time with the alt-country group Drive-By Truckers, Jason Isbell established a presence as one of the genre’s most intriguing performers with his fourth album Southeastern, released in 2013. Ten years later, he’s revisiting the record in a deluxe edition.

The remastered and expanded Southeastern will combine the original album with two alternate listens: a disc featuring demo versions of every track on the album and a set featuring Southeastern complete in concert at Knoxville, Tennessee’s Bijou Theatre last December. The accompanying booklet to the set, available as a 3CD or 4LP set, includes lyrics (including scans of some of Isbell’s lyrics as he wrote them) and an essay from country music scholar Charles Hughes. Isbell has also posed for a new recreation of the original album’s cover photo.

No stranger to the scene as a solo artist, having cut a solo debut in 2007 after his amicable split with the Truckers and two more with his own band The 400 Unit, Southeastern nonetheless marked a seismic shift in Isbell’s work. Full of introspection and honesty following some major life changes, including time in rehab to kick some drug and alcohol habits and a new marriage to singer/songwriter/violinist Amanda Shires. (The wedding took place days after tracking was completed.) Working with producer Dave Cobb, who encouraged the singer to record his vocals in single live takes, the record touched a nerve with critics and fans for its nerve and spirit. Southeastern set some career highs for Isbell on the Billboard charts, including a Top 40 showing on the Billboard 200 and a Top 5 place on the magazine’s rock chart. (He’s since notched several Top 10 overall and No. 1 rock albums.)

The expanded album is due September 29 and can be pre-ordered below.

Southeastern (10 Year Anniversary Deluxe Ediiton) (Southeastern, 2023)

3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD/LP 1: Remastered album (released as Southeastern SE-9984, 2013)

Cover Me Up
Stockholm
Traveling Alone
Elephant
Flying Over Water
Different Days
Live Oak
Songs That She Sang in the Shower
New South Wales
Super 8
Yvette
Relatively Easy

CD/LP 2: Mastered demos

Cover Me Up (Demo)
Stockholm (Demo)
Traveling Alone (Demo)
Elephant (Demo)
Flying Over Water (Demo)
Different Days (Demo)
Live Oak (Demo)
Songs That She Sang in the Shower (Demo)
New South Wales (Demo)
Yvette (Demo)
Relatively Easy (Demo)

All tracks previously unreleased except Tracks 3-4, issued on iTunes edition of original album

CD 3/LP 3-4: Southeastern Live (previously unreleased – recorded live at the Bijou Theatre, Knoxville, TN – 12/13-14/2022)

Intro
Cover Me Up (Live)
Stockholm (Live)
Traveling Alone (Live)
Elephant (Live)
Flying Over Water (Live)
Different Days (Live)
Live Oak (Live)
Songs That She Sang in the Shower (Live)
New South Wales (Live)
Super 8 (Live)
Yvette (Live)
Relatively Easy (Live)

Mike Duquette

Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, having written at and worked for all three major catalogue music labels and contributing to Allmusic, Billboard, Discogs, City Pages and Ultimate Classic Rock. He's penned liner notes for Verve, Chess, Mondo and Soul Music Records.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.