Masked crowd finds pre-pandemic groove with Isbell, Williams

Concerts, those live music things, have been hard to come by for quite some time, so the opportunity to see two great singer-songwriters on a Saturday night at the First Security Amphitheater was hard to resist, even in the troubled times in which we find ourselves.

Lucinda Williams and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit delivered the music and some 2,500 or so fans provided the audience that Williams and Isbell had no doubt been missing as much as their fans had been missing them. Mask-wearing, it was announced earlier in the week, was required to enter, as was proof of vaccination, so those who did not believe in such requirements were free to not attend. Williams, who spent part of her growing up years in Northwest Arkansas, was more of a co-headliner than an opening act, and was warmly welcomed by fans as she was helped to a chair, still recovering from a November stroke.

“I can still sing,” Williams, who was accompanied by a guitarist, bassist and drummer, assured fans, as she began her 11-song, 60-minute set with “Can’t Let Go.”

She performed three songs with links to Arkansas: “West Memphis,” “Pineola” (about Fayetteville poet, Frank Stanford, who committed suicide) and “Drunken Angel” (about Malvern-born musician Blaze Foley, a cult figure in Austin, Texas, and a murder victim).

She sang her well-known “Changed the Locks,” although her set avoided better known Williams’ songs, such as “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” and “Joy”) in favor of such as Memphis Minnie’s “You Can’t Rule Me” and a tribute to the late Dusty Hill with ZZ Top’s “Jesus Just Left Chicago,” at which point she rose and stood for the rest of her set: “Righteously,” “Honey Bee” and “Get Right With God.” In so doing, she showed her determination to recover the strength to match her voice, which was more clear and powerful than it had been in years.

Jason Isbell wasted no time in a set that was 10 minutes shy of two hours, beginning with “Overseas,” from the band’s 2020 album, “Reunions,” noting that covid stopped their tour plans for the album a year ago — meaning they would now pick up where they left off. Other songs from that album included “It Gets Easier,” “Letting You Go,” “Be Afraid,” “Dreamsicle,” “What I’ve Done to Help” and “Only Children.”

Older songs featured were “24 Frames,” “Hope the High Road,” “Something More Than Free,” “Super 8,” “Elephant,” “Last of My Kind,” “If We Were Vampires,” “Cover Me Up” and “Stockholm.” Fans of Isbell’s previous band, the Drive-By Truckers, got “Outfit” and the show’s final encore number, “Never Gonna Change.”

Mentioning his nearly 6-year old daughter, Mercy, was at the show, but close to her bedtime, he performed her request, but noted in a humorous aside that it was not for one of his songs, but for a cover: the 1969 Fleetwood Mac anthem, “Oh Well.” And when he sang “Outfit,” he noted that he was doing it for his dad, who was at the show.

Isbell was generous in sharing his appreciation for his band, the 400 Unit, whose members are Jimbo Hart on bass, Chad Gamble on drums, Derry Deborja on keyboards and, especially, Sadler Vaden on guitars.

Vaden was world class stunning on any song on which he played. There were flashes of the old-style Southern rock guitar duels with Vaden and Isbell facing off, much like what the Allman Brothers Band members, Duane Allman and Dickie Betts, had been famous for.

Some of the Vaden-Isbell duets were so glorious that Isbell jumped into a series of quirky dance moves as if he felt compelled to surrender to a sense of unbridled joy.

For an August night, the weather was comparatively mild, but a couple of quibbles should be noted: bottled water was much harder to find than beer, and concertgoers who expected to relax in their lawn chairs were advised at the only entrance that “no chairs” had become the policy, despite what the website had advised. Later, some fans were seen to have somehow gotten their chairs into the venue.

Despite such minor missteps, many Isbell fans might have abandoned chairs and blankets in appreciation for the rare opportunity to move about with semi-wild abandonment. It was a great night for singing and being sung to.