Jason Isbell Gives Memorable Show in Return to Telluride
Decoration Day” with perhaps the most epic solo ever performed on the song, starting on the slide, and then finishing with fingers on frets. Isbell’s no Duane Allman, or Dickey Betts. But as someone known first for their songwriting, he’s a monster on his own leads, or trading licks with guitarist Sadler Vaden, making for a enviable 1 and 1A combo or any musical outfit. You add on top of that songs that have gone on to define the pinnacle of writing over the last decade-plus, and you have true apex musical experience.
When you can leave songs like “Cover Me Up,” “Elephant,” and “Cast Iron Skillet” on the shelf and still have the audience walk away feeling entirely fulfilled, you know you’re a boss with a stacked catalog. Isbell did play quite a few selections from his 2025 acoustic solo album Foxes in the Snow full band style (see track list below). This included a pretty epic version of the new song “Ride To Robert’s” that mentions the legendary Robert’s Western World on Lower Broadway in Nashville. Isbell and Sadler Vaden teamed up acrostic style, extending the song well past the boundaries of the recorded version. This is a common occurrence for an Isbell song rendered live. You wouldn’t go as far as to call it a jam band. But often Isbell allows songs to breathe, and a performance and the audience reception to choose when the conclusion comes. That’s what made “Decoration Day,” “Ride to Robert’s,” and the one song where the recorded version does stretch its legs a bit—“This Ain’t It”—so epic on the legendary Telluride stage. Isbell wasn’t going to cater his set to the bluegrass crowd. That’s not what’s expected in Telluride anyway. He remarked about having to follow up Gillian Welch and David Rawlings who played right before him, “I gave up a long time ago trying to follow up that.” But he did play a more bluegrass-style version of his song “Bury Me,” which is probably his most country/bluegrass song in his catalog. As the world implodes outside, and irrespective of any polarizing aspect to Isbell and his music, his nearly 2-hour set at Telluride was music sublimity. It concluded with an incredible version of the Saving Country Music 2023 Song of the Year “King of Oklahoma.” And for a couple of choice hours in the mountains of Colorado, all was right in the world, no matter how wrong things are otherwise.
All photos by Kyle “Trigger” Coroneos. For more photos/videos from Telluride and other live events, follow Saving Country Music on Instagram.
Sadler Vaden, Chad Gamble, Anna Butterss, Derrick DeBorja, and new guitarist/drummer Will Johnson rounded out the lineup for the performance.
Setlist:
1. 24 Frames
2. Crimson and Clay
3. The Life You Chose
4. Stockholm
5. Ride To Robert’s
6. Live Oak
7. Alabama Pines
8. Good While It Lasted
9. Decoration Day
10. If We Were Vampires
11. Dreamsickle
12. Children of Children
13. Eileen
14. Bury Me
15. This Ain’t It
16. True Believer
17. King of Oklahoma