By Erika Goldring/Getty Images.

“I heard a lot of racist comments from people I grew up with,” says Alabama native, singer/songwriter/guitarist Jason Isbell. “But when I started listening to the music of Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and the Staple Singers, it taught me that if there’s something wrong with the people making that, then I’d also like that to be wrong with me.” Isbell, 38, a former member of the rock band Drive-By Truckers, went solo in 2007. Since then, he has quit drinking, released six albums, won two Grammys, and had a daughter with his wife, the noted musician Amanda Shires, who also plays in his band, the 400 Unit. Here, he talks with Lisa Robinson about music, politics, and fame.

LISA ROBINSON: A song on your latest album (The Nashville Sound) is titled “White Man’s World.” How do you feel coming from the state that gave us Jeff Sessions?

JASON ISBELL: I grew up in a place surrounded by white people; there weren’t any black people in my high school. I live in Nashville now, which is pretty much the same. But when I got into my teens, music was the thing that kept me from winding up as closed-minded as the people I grew up with.

L.R.: As a songwriter, can you ignore what’s going on in our country now?

J.I.: It’s heartbreaking—the last time I saw Sharon Jones was in Charlottesville at the Jefferson Theater, and it was a beautiful night. This administration has emboldened hateful beliefs to come forward because we’ve rewarded bad behavior. But people are communicating in a way we haven’t in years, and calling people out for hateful beliefs.

L.R.: Are you surprised by the attention you’ve gotten from musicians like Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, and John Prine?

J.I.: The Truckers were very well received critically; people had a lot of respect for that band. But I never expected my work to reach this point. John Prine was always a hero of mine; some of his songs made me realize what a songwriter was. To be able to go swimming at John’s house or go to dinner with him and his wife is just incredible. I never thought to dream of that.

By Alyssa Gafkjen.

Sounds of the South

“Not everybody in the South is conservative,” says Paul Janeway, lead singer/songwriter of the soul-rock band St. Paul & the Broken Bones, who, along with other Alabama-born musicians (Jason Isbell, Alabama Shakes), don’t back away from airing their progressive views. Janeway had a Pentecostal church upbringing and observed people speaking in tongues and casting out demons—which, he says, “scared the shit out of me.” He considered becoming a preacher because he liked the performance part of it, but by the time he was a teenager, he’d fallen out of love with the church and formed a band in Birmingham, Alabama. His voice has been compared to Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, and Al Green, but, says Janeway, “those names—that is god to me. That is an unreachable bar. I sang in church, but in all honesty I never thought I had a good voice or that I could do this as a living.” In 2008, while working in a mechanic shop, he saw that Prince was playing Coachella. “So I spent a month’s worth of money, [went there], got up early, and stood in the front row. It changed my life. I was crying through the whole show. That was the moment I knew I wanted to be a performer.” The eight-piece St. Paul & the Broken Bones have released two albums, toured all over the world, opened shows for the Rolling Stones, and count Keith Richards and Elton John among their fans. Janeway’s own eclectic tastes range from Prince to Serge Gainsbourg, and the painters Caravaggio and Mark Rothko. “Growing up in Alabama,” he says, “you’re not really exposed to a lot of art, so when I go to Europe, I like to go to museums.” But he says he’ll probably always live in Birmingham because “I think it’s important for people to know there are others here who think [the same] way: you can’t look at what’s going on in the world and not be angry or unhappy.”