Continuing 25 Years of Jam: My #1 album of 2003 was the fourth studio album by Athens, Georgia's Drive-By Truckers, Decoration Day. It was the follow-up to their incredible double-album examination of what they call "the duality of the Southern thing," Southern Rock Opera, and thus was anticipated heavily by fans and astute critics. On the tour supporting Opera, 22-year-old guitarist and writer Jason Isbell—significantly younger than the rest of the band—joined the group, and Decoration Day is the first DBT album featuring his songs. With Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley the group already had two world-class writers; Isbell made them, like the Beatles, a band with three great writers. I wanted to post the title track here, but Warner blocks it; instead you get his other song from the album, a great ballad of fatherly advice. Isbell wrote beyond his years. He left the band in 2007 and is now on his fifth solo album, having gained much acclaim with his 2013 breakthrough LP Southeastern.
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