Events

[ROCK] When Ryan Adams is part of your intervention, you know you need help. And former Drive By Truckers guitarist Jason Isbell got help after Adams and a few others confronted him about various addictions in early 2012. His breakthrough solo album, 2013’s lauded Southeastern, was the start of a new chapter in his life, something he’s been unusually transparent about since. His Muscle Shoals-based band, The 400 Unit — which features his violinist wife, Amanda Shires — is named after an Alabama psych ward. The band will accompany him for his appearance at UB’s Center for the Arts on Tuesday, January 30, where he’ll present a set of tunes culled mainly from last year’s The Nashville Sound and 2015’s Something More than Free, peppered with solo material and maybe a Drive By Truckers song or two. Known for writing with disarming honesty and crooning with a tuneful twang, Isbell is thought of as a key player in the current Americana scene, balancing a classic country sensibility with elements of early rock and soul. Along the way, he’s been nominated for a dozen Americana Music Honors and Awards, four Grammys, a CMA and, in 2017, was named as the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Artist in Residence. If you weren’t able to make it to Canandaigua for his gig (with Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam opening) last summer, now’s your chance.