Jason Isbell, Brothers Osborne to Sing John Prine’s Songs in Nashville
When John Prine‘s record label, Oh Boy Records, released the Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine tribute LP in 2010, the closing track was a crunchy, moody cover of “Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian” by Those Darlins. Seven years on, Oh Boy is preparing to reissue the album on vinyl, but life has been turned on its head for Those Darlins’ co-leader Jessi “Zazu” Wariner, who now finds herself in the throes of a battle with cervical cancer. So to help with Wariner’s mounting medical costs, Oh Boy is staging a vinyl release party to help benefit the Nashville singer, guitarist and artist.
The bill is a stellar one, too. Jason Isbell, touring on the back of his newly released Number One album with the 400 Unit, The Nashville Sound, will be playing the July 27th show at Nashville’s Basement East, as will his wife and collaborator, Amanda Shires. Also on the bill are recent ACM and CMA-winning country duo Brothers Osborne, along with Colter Wall, hot off the release of his impressive, self-titled debut, and Lilly Hiatt, whose new album is due in August.
Rounding out the contingent of Nashville notables slated to play are Muddy Magnolias, Caitlin Rose, Alex Caress, Andrew Leahey, Caroline Rose, Cory Branan, Darrin Bradbury, Elise Davis, Elizabeth Cook, Holly Williams, Jon Latham, Kelsey Waldon, Larissa Murphy, the Nicholson Brothers, Paul Cauthen, and the Whiskey Gentry.
Those Darlins, which singer and guitarist Wariner had co-founded in 2006, played a farewell tour last year after a decade as a unit. At the end of 2016, Wariner announced that she was battling cancer in a video in which she appeared with a shaved head and tubes inserted in her nostrils. “I just want everyone to know that I’m a fighter and I will never give up,” said Wariner, who has continued to make art since the diagnosis, in the video. A YouCaring page set up in her honor has since raised more than $50,000.
All proceeds for the show, dubbed “The Songs of John Prine,” will benefit Wariner.