Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit

The first time most of us heard Jason Isbell was on "Outfit", his initial offering on the Drive-By Truckers' 2003 album Decoration Day, the group's first with the Alabama native. An extraordinarily perceptive and sensitive song, especially coming from a 24-year-old, "Outfit" finds a working-class father lending advice to his rock star-wannabe son, narrating along the way his own story of teenage rebellion curtailed by the adult responsibilities he ultimately came to cherish.