Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium will become Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s second home for eight nights later this year. In October, the group of musicians will play eight shows at the famed venue. The residency will feature a different special guest each night, all of which are women.
Isbell and the 400 Unit’s residency will begin on Thursday, Oct. 10, with Alice Randall. The shows extend through Sunday, Oct. 20, and will include appearances from Garrison Starr, Mary Gauthier, Caitlin and Liz Rose, Matraca Berg, Iris Dement, Gretchen Peters, and Kim Richey.
Tickets for the eight live shows will go on sale on Friday, June 21, at 10 a.m. via the official Ryman Auditorium website.
Last year, Isbell and the 400 Unit released their latest album Weathervanes. In a review of the record, Rolling Stone wrote: “Its songs tremble with anger, desperation, and fear; characters wrestle with regret and unhealthy appetites, struggling to cut losses in the wake of bad choices and cascading consequences. Isbell’s stories glint with memoir and headlines as they put human faces on head-count epidemics: mass shootings, opioid addiction, Covid-19.”
Isbell books the openers for each Ryman residency with intention. Last year, the residency highlighted LGBTQ artists, including Izzy Heltai, Satya, S.G. Goodman, Lawrence Rothman, Autumn Nicholas, Adeem the Artist, and Quinn Christopherson. In 2022, he emphasized global perspectives, featuring artists who either came to the United States as immigrants or are the children of immigrants.
Earlier this year, Isbell and the 400 Unit hit the road for a North American tour that kicked off in January and concluded in May. The run of shows included their a sold-out debut performance at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.