The Writers Guild Of America (WGA) strike has officially ended. To celebrate, several late-night shows have opened up their studios for interviews and, of course, live music performances. Last night, Jimmy Kimmel Live! welcomed Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit as the first musical act post-strike. The group delivered a moving performance of their song, “When We Were Close,” off the album Weathervanes.
Within Kimmel’s opening monologue, he addressed the five-month strike, jokingly saying, “This is a big win for the little guy. This is a big win for the chubby guy and the hairy dude and the weird girl who doesn’t make eye contact and for the two potheads in the Star Wars t-shirts that are too small for their bodies and the guy who is too old to have a ponytail and the lady whose two cats each have their own Instagram page. We call them writers, and they are all back to work.”
During an interview with Uproxx’s Steven Hayden, Isbell opened up about the creative process of creating “When We Were Close,” saying, “There are a few songs on the record that I call ‘The Old Assignment.’ ‘Cast Iron Skillet’ was one of those, and ‘King Of Oklahoma’ was one of those, where when I got about halfway through writing them, I thought, ‘Oh, this sounds like something I would’ve done for that band.’ So I just started thinking of them as a suite of songs that I called ‘The Old Assignment’ in the studio.”
Watch Jason Isbell And The 400’s full performance above.
Weathervanes is out now via Southeastern Records/Thirty Tigers. Find more information here.