When Jason Isbell returned last summer with The Nashville Sound, his sixth LP, he came with two middle fingers pointed way up at both white privilege and the Music City machine: On the punchy "White Man's World" he warned his demographic of a changing world while lamenting that his wife, the über-talented songwriter and fiddler Amanda Shires, will never be able to "change that Nashville sound." The music was equally amped up, and on the scuzzy "Cumberland Gap" or soaring "Hope the High Road" he leaned into his bar band roots. (Isbell logged six years with the hard-living southern rock outfit Drive-By Truckers early in his career.)

But one of the strongest moments actually came in the form of the delicate album-opener "Last of My Kind," which sees Isbell taking on the perspective of a rural Southerner who's woeful in the face of a rapidly changing country. This is a man that Isbell admitted he used to be, "that's a little bit afraid and feels isolated, that I don't belong, and that the way of life I used to have is dying," he told Esquire.com last year. "But that's mostly been replaced with somebody that's more hopeful and less fearful."

Recorded at the fabled Ryman Auditorium last year when the songwriter hosted a six-night, sold-out residency, the song will release via Isbell's own Southeastern Records on his upcoming Live From the Ryman album, due out October 19. The set is currently available for pre-order. You can listen to "Last of My Kind" exclusively on Esquire.com below.

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"The Ryman is a very special place," Isbell told Esquire.com via email. "Obviously the place has an incredible pedigree, but what I love most about it is somewhat structural: From the audience, a show really looks and sounds great in that room."

That energy is on display on the live cut, which, lined with the howls of the audience and anchored by a new arrangement, gets a noticeable update from its studio version as it builds into an electric guitar and fiddle freakout. "[It] has definitely evolved over the past couple of years," Isbell admits of the track. "We stretch the song out live, make it last a while, and the band's dynamics really add some additional weight to the lyric."

Isbell and his band, the 400 Unit, are currently on tour. Dates—which includes another Ryman Auditorium residency in October—are listed on the group's website.

Madison Vain Madison Vain is a writer and editor living in New York, covering music, books, TV, and movies; prior to Esquire, she worked at Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated.

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