With a polished, heartfelt set, here's how Jason Isbell wowed a loving Wilmington crowd

Monday night can be a risky one for events, but when Jason Isbell shows up to play Wilmington, it might as well be the weekend.

The Grammy-winning Alabama singer and songwriter packed the house at Cape Fear Community College's 1,550-seat Wilson Center on Monday, delivering a polished, often emotional performance packed with an assortment of the well-crafted Southern rock songs that have won Isbell a legion of devoted fans worldwide.

And just in case anyone forgot that Isbell is not only a singer and songwriter but also a guitarist, he broke out a staggering number of deft, face-melting solos that blended rock, blues and even a little jazz into the alt-country mix.

Wearing a black button-up, jeans, chunky black boots and a big smile, Isbell took the stage at a quarter to nine. The crowd immediately rose, and most in the audience continued to stand for the entirety of the nearly two-hour show.

Isbell led off with a trio of tunes from his most recent album, 2023's "Weathervanes," including "King of Oklahoma," a tuneful yet bracing account of addiction and shattered relationships in America's heartland.

It's one of many vignette-style songs Isbell is a master of: clear-eyed looks at the frayed hopes and dreams of people who've been forgotten, left behind and left out of the American Dream. His tunes aren't jagged little pills, though, more like slow-release tablets that wash over you and reveal their meanings gently yet powerfully.

His distinctive voice strong and clear, Isbell also played a spine-tingling version of "Strawberry Woman" from "Weathervanes" — a ballad of broken love for a wild, untamed soul — as well as "Cast Iron Skillet." The latter, a song about Southern traditions and the cost of breaking with them in the name of love, recently won a well-earned Grammy for Best American Roots Song.

Isbell mentioned Wilmington (he ate crab cakes somewhere downtown) and the Wilson Center ("this place is nice, I like it, good room") briefly, but he didn't mention the recent news of his divorce from his wife of 11 years, fellow songwriter Amanda Shires.

It was hard not to think of it, though, when Isbell sang the lyrics from his 2017 song "If We Were Vampires": "Maybe time running out is a gift ... Maybe we'll get 40 years together/ But one day I'll be gone/ Or one day you'll be gone."

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Clearly, the crowd had Isbell's back and knows his back story, including his past struggles with substance abuse. When he sang the line, "I swore off that stuff/ Forever this time" from "Cover Me Up," the crowd erupted in spontaneous cheers.

Isbell played just one song from his time with the Drive-By Truckers, the Southern rock band he was with for three albums in the early and mid-2000s before going solo in 2007. It was an expanded, comfortably rambling, solo-filled take on "Decoration Day," a conflicted rumination on what it means to be a white man with Southern roots.

Instead of identifying his bandmates en masse at the end of the show, Isbell called them out early and often, so I'll do the same here: Sadler Vaden on guitar, Anna Butterss on bass, Derry deBorja on keys, Chad Gamble on drums, and Will Johnson on acoustic guitar, a second drum kit and several other instruments.

The recognition of his fellow players, known collectively as The 400 Unit, took a funny turn at one point and allowed Isbell to indulge his penchant for goofy dad humor when he revealed that Vaden, a native of North Myrtle Beach, was celebrating his 38th birthday. Naturally, the combo of "38" and a "special" day led Isbell to celebrate Vaden with a cake-referencing birthday song sung to the tune of .38 Special's indelible 1981 Southern rock hit "Hold on Loosely."

Prior to Isbell taking the stage, the crowd was treated to some very fine songs by the band Palehound, which fought through some muddy sound to deliver a melodic mix of rock, punk and alt-country, with singer and guitarist Ellen Kempner's delicate vocals a shining highlight.

At moments during Isbell's set, not many, things began to feel a little mid, not to mention song selections that mostly had very similar mid-tempos. Then again, Isbell and his band have a long tour ahead of them, so it's not completely surprising they didn't leave every single thing on the stage in Wilmington on a Monday night.

Besides, any night of the week with a concert by a master songwriter and musical icon like Jason Isbell isn't one anybody should be complaining about.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Concert review: Jason Isbell wows loving crowd at Wilmington, NC show