Jason Isbell Releases Big Star Tribute

Offers version of "When My Baby's Beside Me" via his MySpace page.

By Fred Mills

Wow - cover songs don't get much better than this.

In the wake of Alex Chilton's sad, far-too-premature passing, the accolades and remembrances from the music community have been coming fast and furious - among them, musical tributes, such as the one by Jeffrey Dean Foster and Mitch Easter, a cover of "Ballad of El Goodo," that we posted to the Blurt site the other day.

Now comes a positively spot-on version of Big Star's "When My Baby's Beside Me" recorded by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit and posted yesterday to Isbell's MySpace page. Seriously - it kicks ass, and any fan of Chilton and Big Star will not be disappointed. The band cut it last year during sessions for their self-titled album (reviewed here at Blurt). Thanks Jason - you went above and beyond.

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In other Chilton/Big Star news, in Austin at SXSW there was some concern about the fate of the Big Star showcase tonight (Saturday) at Antone's. It's on, and is now being billed as "Big Star - A Tribute to Alex Chilton." Apparently the band's Jody Stephens, Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer talked with Chilton's widow and decided that turning it into a tribute was in order, and they've lined up a slew of guests to perform including Chuck Prophet, X's John Doe, R.E.M.'s Mike Mills, indie-folk singer M. Ward, the dB's Chris Stamey, and Doug Garrison and René Coman (pals of Chilton who had played with him many times over the years).