Photo Credit: Bill Kelly
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit have announced a full-length follow-up to the band’s acclaimed 2018 collection Live from the Ryman, continuing a longstanding relationship with the Music City institution in a love letter to Isball’s adopted city of Nashville, Tenn. As a sample of the forthcoming project, Isbell has shared the preview single “King of Oklahoma (Live),” which takes the 2023 standard to new heights with a powerful stage performance.
Due to release on October 4 via Isbell’s Southeastern Records imprint, Live from the Ryman, Vol. 2 picks up where its predecessor left off. Whereas Isbell’s first live compilation from “The Mother Church of Country Music” documented a six-night 2017 residency and featured cuts from that year’s The Nashville Sound, 2015’s Something More Than Free and 2013’s Southeastern, the band’s latest draws on its annual residencies at the Ryman since and features cuts from 2020’s Reunions and 2023’s Weathervanes.
The 15 tracks that compose Live from the Ryman, Vol. 2 are drawn from multi-track recordings produced by Cain Hogsed, the band’s longstanding front-of-house engineer. Rather than originating from a single series like the first Live at the Ryman, the components of the new compilation are sourced from multiple of the band’s annual returns to the storied stage, documenting a sound in process over the course of a busy few years.
The album is produced by Isbell and Hogsed, with mixing from Todd Tidwell, who clearly capture the boisterous, energetic atmosphere of the 400 Unit live experience on the “King of Oklahoma.” Beyond recent entries, the project also features treatments of “The Last Song I Will Write,” which closes Isbell and the 400 Unit’s self-titled 2009 debut, and Tom Petty’s “Room at the Top,” which the band delivered as a tribute to the legendary artist after his passing in 2017.
Live from the Ryman, Vol. 2, is available to pre-add and pre-save now. Isbell and the 400 Unit will return to Ryman Auditorium in the fall, with eight dates alongside eight special guests slated from Oct. 10-20. For tickets and more information on the band’s 2024 touring itinerary, visit jasonisbell.com.
Live from the Ryman, Vol. 2 – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
1. Save The World
2. King Of Oklahoma
3. Only Children
4. Overseas
5. Dreamsicle
6. Running With Our Eyes Closed
7. Middle Of The Morning
8. The Last Song I Will Write
9. Strawberry Woman
10. Cast Iron Skillet
11. Miles
12. River
13. When We Were Close
14. Room At The Top
15. This Ain’t It