Jason Isbell: Beacon Theatre 2025

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

The new Jason Isbell album, Foxes in the Snow, offers an opportunity to appreciate his considerable gifts as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist in a fresh way. It’s his first solo acoustic album and his first that he recorded here in New York — in just five days no less at Electric Lady Studios in the West Village.

In February, Jason played a pair of sold out shows at the Beacon Theatre where, on the first evening, he did a special soundcheck performance for a handful of WFUV listeners and then allowed us to record the songs you’ll hear in this FUV Live session: "Bury Me," "Foxes in the Snow," and "If We Were Vampires."

During our conversation a couple of days later, Isbell offered up some details about the new songs and the beautiful old guitar he used to record them. He challenged himself to sing and play at the same time and not do any overdubs. The result is about as intimate a listening experience as you could imagine. He mentioned that he felt in touch with some of the music he first connected to while growing up in north Alabama and that rang true as he so deeply inhabits the characters here.

We also touched on his movie career (including an upcoming  collaboration with RZA) and how the clothes Jason wears affect his songwriting. He also revealed he’s dating a New Yorker so we’ll hope to cross paths with him soon: he always has an open invitation to stop by FUV.

[Recorded: 2/21/25. Special thanks to MSG Entertainment and the Beacon Theatre. Produced by Meghan Suma.]