Jason Isbell Explains How He Wrote ‘Something More Than Free’

This is going to be the understatement of the year, but there may be no simpler way to say it: Jason Isbell is an outrageously talented songwriter. Yes, he has a beautiful, soulful voice, and he definitely knows how to arrange music to create an unforgettable listening experience. But the center of his stunningly deep talent is his knack for writing stories and spinning them into four-minute songs. So, when you get the chance to pull back the curtain just a bit to find out how he crafts those stories, you stop what you're doing and you listen.

Fortunately for us, GQ recently launched a new video series called How I Wrote That Song, and guess who is their inaugural guest?

In the new video, Isbell recalls the inspiration for a couple of the key lines from the title-track to his brand-new album, Something More Than Free. "This particular song ... there were two things that happened at the same time that I thought were unrelated until I actually started the process of writing the song," he says. Rather than us summarizing his thoughts, take a few minutes to check out his explanation for "Something More Than Free" -- followed by a beautiful acoustic performance of the track -- in the video below:

And in case you didn't hear, Something More Than Free is (not surprisingly) taking the country by storm as it sits on top of several charts this week:

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