The Zac Brown Band took the stage during Jimmy Kimmel Live to sing a heartbreaking rendition of Jason Isbell’s “Dress Blues”.
“Dress Blues” is a very solemn song that was released on Isbell’s 2007 album, titled Sirens of the Ditch. The song was inspired by a school colleague of Isbell, Corporal Matthew Conley. According to AmericanSongwriter.com, in an interview with Uncut Magazine, Jason said:
“I knew Matt Conley not very well, he was a few years younger. I was coming off a tour with the (Drive-By) Truckers, and I called my mom and she told me about his funeral, which she’d attended that day, and when I got home I wrote ‘Dress Blues’ in a time it takes to write it down on a piece of paper. I already had the chord progression from a song I’ve been working on about Mickey Rooney, of all things. The song just fit that tune.”
A tribute to fallen soldiers, “Dress Blues” tells the story of a man that joins the military at eighteen and how his friends and family were expecting him to return and celebrate, but instead everyone is dressed in black and mourning his loss.
The Zac Brown Band’s rendition is wonderfully done country song, but also emotionally shattering, pulling at our heartstrings and helping us to remember all the men and women out there right now, putting their lives on the line for our freedoms. Country music at its best, makes you think about what matters.
