State Theatre New Jersey Presents Jason Isbell, April 8

The newly renovated State Theatre New Jersey presents Jason Isbell with special guest S.G. Goodman on Friday, April 8, 2022, at 8pm. Tickets range from $45-$199.

Jason Isbell has established himself as one of the most respected and celebrated songwriters of his generation. The North Alabama native possesses an incredible penchant for identifying and articulating some of the deepest, yet simplest, human emotions, and turning them into beautiful poetry through song. Isbell sings of the everyday human condition with thoughtful, heartfelt, and sometimes brutal honesty. Isbell broke through in 2013 with the release of Southeastern. His next two albums, Something More Than Free (2015) and The Nashville Sound (2017), won Grammy Awards for Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Song. Isbell's song "Maybe It's Time" was featured in the 2019 reboot of A Star Is Born.

His most recent full-length album, Reunions (2020), is a critically acclaimed collection of 10 new songs that showcases an artist at the height of his powers and a band fully charged with creativity and confidence. In April of 2021, it was announced that Isbell would appear in the upcoming Martin Scorsese film, Killers of the Flower Moon.

In October 2021, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit released a special new covers album, Georgia Blue. Created to celebrate Georgia's role in the 2020 election, the record consists of new versions of 13 songs with ties to the state, including tracks originally recorded by Georgia natives R.E.M., Drivn' N' Cryin', James Brown, Cat Power, Precious Bryant, Otis Redding, The Black Crowes, Indigo Girls, Now It's Overhead, Gladys Knight & The Pips, The Allman Brothers Band, and Vic Chesnutt. All proceeds will benefit three non-profit organizations: Black Voters Matter, Fair Fight, and Georgia STAND-UP.

"No one escapes the marks left behind when it comes to love or the absence of it," says singer-songwriter S.G. Goodman, describing the inspiration behind her sophomore album Teeth Marks. "Not only are we the ones who bear its indentations, but we're also the ones responsible for placing them on ourselves and others."

When the Kentucky native released her debut album, Old Time Feeling, she was rightly coined an "untamed rock n roll truth-teller" by Rolling Stone. The roots-inflected rock n' roll record saw Goodman lending her gritty, haunting vocals to narrate the dual perspectives of her upbringing as the daughter of a crop farmer, and a queer woman coming out in a rural town.

Now with Teeth Marks, co-produced by Drew Vandenberg (Faye Webster, Drive-By Truckers, Of Montreal) in Athens, Georgia, she picks up the threads of Old Time Feeling. But where her critically acclaimed, Jim James-produced debut zeroed in on the South, reframing misconceptions in slough water-soaked tones, her latest album pulses with downtown Velvet Underground electricity, shifting its focus inward-though never losing Goodman's searing and universal point of view. Teeth Marks is what you might get if Flannery O'Connor and Lou Reed went on a road trip.

Drawing influences from the aforementioned Velvets, as well as Pavement, Karen Dalton, and Chad VanGaalen, Goodman brings 11 powerful vignettes to life, with a sound that ventures deeper into indie rock and punk territory than she ever has before. Though Teeth Marks is a love album, Goodman doesn't aim her focus on romantic relationships alone. Instead, she analyzes the way love between communities, families, and even one's self can be influenced by trauma that lingers in the body. Teeth Marks is about what love actually is, love's psychological and physical imprint, its light, and its darkness. It's a record about the love we have or don't have for each other, and perhaps, more significantly, the love we have or don't have for ourselves.

For tickets, more information, or group discounts, call State Theatre Guest Services at 732-246-SHOW (7469) or visit online at STNJ.org. State Theatre Guest Services, located at 15 Livingston Ave, New Brunswick NJ, is open by phone and email only, Tuesday through Friday from 11am to 5pm. For in-person purchases, Guest Services is open Tuesday through Friday from 12pm to 4:30pm. Additional ticket and transaction fees may apply.

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