''Something More Than Free'' is the fifth studio album by

Jason Isbell Michael Jason Isbell ( ; born February 1, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. One of the most celebrated contemporary songwriters in his genre, his lyrics are defined by their raw emotional honesty. Isbell began his career as a me ...

, released on July 17, 2015. It was produced by

Dave Cobb Dave Cobb (born July 9, 1974) is an American record producer based in Nashville, Tennessee, best known for producing the work of Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, John Prine, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, The Highwomen, Take That, Rival ...

, who had produced Isbell's previous record, '' Southeastern'' (2013). At the

58th Annual Grammy Awards The 58th Annual Grammy Awards was held on February 15, 2016, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The ceremony recognizes the best recordings, compositions and artists of the eligibility year, which was from October 1, 2014, to September 30, 201 ...

, the album won the award for Best Americana Album, and the song "24 Frames" won the award for

Best American Roots Song The Grammy Award for Best American Roots Song is an award category at the annual Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the American Roots Music ...

Reception

The album received mostly positive reviews. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, it has a score of 87 out of 100 based on 25 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Jon Freeman of '' Nash Country Weekly'' gave the album a grade of "A" and wrote that "Jason Isbell has a reporter's eye for detail and a poet's gift for a beautifully crafted turn of phrase". He went on to say that "Jason's throaty rasp, not unlike

Tyler Farr Tyler Lynn Farr (born February 5, 1984) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Originally signed to BNA Records Farr released two singles for the label before it closed. He transferred to Columbia Records Nashville, releasing two a ...

's, is the ideal vehicle for those stories ..It may not be all pretty, but ''Something More Than Free'' is as real as it gets."Freeman, Jon
Something More Than Free - Jason Isbell
countryweekly.com. 13 July 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2016. Craig Manning of

AbsolutePunk ''AbsolutePunk'' was a website, online community, and alternative music news source founded by Jason Tate (the most recent CEO). The website mainly focused on artists who are relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, but it was known to featu ...

praised the album, writing: "Like ''Southeastern'', ''Something More Than Free'' is a masterwork, and while I'm not sure if I quite agree with Isbell that it's better than ''Southeastern'', it certainly offers a different (but equally satisfying) experience." In another positive review that compared the album to its predecessor, Eric Swedlund of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'' wrote that, "though ''Something More Than Free'' may not repeat Isbell's album-of-the-year accolades, it continues the magic of that breakthrough LP". Jeremy Winograd of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

'' wrote, in an otherwise positive review, that ''Something More Than Free'' "retains ''Southeasterns intimate acoustic-based feel and heavyhearted lyrical matter, but it's even more smooth-edged and lacks the emotional gut-punches of its predecessor."Winograd, Jeremy
Jason Isbell: Something More Than Free
Slant. 8 July 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2016. In a mixed review,

Stephen Deusner Stephen M. Deusner is an American music critic and part-time record store clerk who lives in Bloomington, Indiana. A native of Tennessee, he has contributed to Pitchfork Media (including ''the Pitchfork 500''), ''Salon'', '' CMT'', ''American Songwr ...

of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' described ''Something More Than Free'' as "an album that contains too few surprises", and said that "the music does little to distinguish these characters or enliven the lyrics".

Accolades

Commercial performance

In the United States, the album debuted at number 6 on the ''Billboard'' 200, and at number 1 on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Top Rock Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

, Folk Albums, and

Top Country Albums Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales ...

charts, with 46,000 units sold. Although he had previously had critical success in the

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana music, a genre or style of American music * Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1981 film), an American drama film * ''Americana'' (20 ...

genre, this was the first time one of Isbell's albums had performed so well on the charts across several genres. As of July 2016, the album had sold 143,000 copies in the U.S. The single "24 Frames" peaked at number 8 on the ''Billboard'' Triple A Airplay chart, and at number 42 on the

Rock Airplay The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

chart.

Track listing

Personnel

– vocals,

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...

, acoustic guitar, hi-string acoustic guitar, nylon string guitar,

resonator guitar A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar (often generically called a " Dobro") is an acoustic guitar that produces sound by conducting string vibrations through the bridge to one or more spun metal cones (resonators), instead of to the guitar' ...

–

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

* Derry Deborja –

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

* Chad Gamble –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Jimbo Hart –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

Amanda Shires Amanda Rose Shires (born March 5, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and fiddle player. Shires has released seven solo albums starting in 2005, her most recent being '' Take It Like a Man'' in 2022. In 2019, she founded a country music super ...

–

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

, strings, harmony vocals * Sadler Vaden – electric guitar, background vocals

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

Jason Isbell official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Something More Than Free Jason Isbell albums 2015 albums Albums produced by Dave Cobb Grammy Award for Best Americana Album