Jason Isbell's latest album, Something More Than Free, came out too late in the year to earn a 2015 Americana Honors and Awards nomination. Even so, Isbell, a multiple-category winner in 2014, had plenty to be proud of as he took the stage at Nashville's storied Ryman Auditorium, to perform during the September ceremony. Not only had lovers of country, rock and folk instantly embraced Something More Than Free, but he and his collaborator and wife, Amanda Shires, had also just welcomed their first baby. That makes this rendition of the album's title song, a humbly spiritual ballad grounded in gratitude, especially moving. "I'm doing what I'm on this earth to do," sings Isbell — and as he steps assuredly away from the mic to lock eyes and trade riffs with Shires, those words seem to ring as true for him as for the song's blue-collar narrator.
Austin City Limits presents this and other performance highlights from the 2015 Americana Honors and Awards in a one-hour special that premieres on PBS tomorrow, Nov. 21, at 9pm ET.
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