His politics might ‘run people off,’ but this singer will headline a major Boise concert
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more outspoken musician than Jason Isbell.
Or a more gifted singer-songwriter.
So for Boise fans of the Alabama-born, six-time Grammy winner, it’s time to mark the 2025 concert calendar. Isbell and his backing band, The 400 Unit, will headline an outdoor show Saturday, May 17, at the Idaho Botanical Garden’s Outlaw Field.
Tickets will become available to the general public starting at 10 a.m. Friday for $60 at Ticketmaster. Garden members can buy them beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday for $55.
Isbell, 45, is no stranger to Idaho. He’s played gigs in Boise and Ketchum as a solo frontman and during a six-year stint as a member of Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers. His most recent visit to the City of Trees was headlining at the 2,000-capacity Morrison Center last year.
Outlaw Field is a well-deserved jump to the next level; it holds 4,000.
In August, Isbell performed at the Democratic National Convention, a decision that surprised no one who had followed him on Twitter, then X, over the years. (He left the platform recently and moved to Threads.) Isbell’s left-wing politics and penchant for opinion-driven kerfuffles online had become near-legendary.
In a thoughtful New York Times interview, Isbell said that he didn’t worry whether playing at the DNC — or publicly embracing his political views — might affect his crowds.
“ ... The ultimate goal for me is not to get as many fans as possible,” Isbell said. “I have enough fans, and I have enough money, I have enough gear.”
Instead, the goal, he said, “is just to communicate my inner life and test the connection that I have with everybody else, with strangers. And in order to do that, you gotta tell the truth, and you gotta be honest about how you feel. And if it runs some people off — I’m going to tell you, this might not sound like the truth here, but it is — if it runs people off, I would like them to go.
“I don’t want people out there who are going to make it uncomfortable for the rest of my audience. And if you’re not open to hearing what I have to say, then you’re probably not going to be open to somebody standing by you who is different from you, and that’s not the kind of room I want to be in. I don’t care how big it is or how many tickets I’ve sold.”
Isbell’s songwriting is consistently vivid and powerful. Try to listen to his 2013 bombshell of a cancer song, “Elephant,” without feeling utterly devastated afterward.
He’s unafraid to take a stand, yet his music often is filled with hope. “Save the World,” from his band’s 2023 album, “Weathervanes,” addresses school shootings. In February, “Weathervanes” won the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album.
As a songwriter, Isbell told “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, “What I’m trying to do is let people know you’re not alone — when you feel this way, when you feel afraid.”
It’s a good bet nobody will feel alone at Outlaw Field — not with the trajectory of Isbell’s career.
This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 8:00 AM.