Jason Isbell Electrifies GR Crowd With Stones Tribute

Jason invited opening act Brittney Spencer up on stage Friday night at DeVos Place for a Charlie Watts memorial that was nothing short of amazing.

Isbell, the Americana artist whose story songs about life growing up and his struggles with addiction have garnered him a small but solid following.

Friday night he played to a sold out crown downtown at DeVos Place, and as many musicians have done over the past few days, he decided to do a little tribute to recently passed Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts.

Opening act Brittney Spencer joined Isbell and his band, the 400 Unit for a searing rendition of the Stones' 1969 classic from Let it Bleed, "Gimme Shelter".

The song was made even more haunting by Spencer's pretty accurate take on the famed Merry Clayton's original reading on the song's back up vocals.

Luckily for all of us, Brian Sleeman, an Isbell fan caught the performance and posted it to YouTube, and while the audio is muddled a bit, as phone recorded audio often is, I think it does capture the intensity of the song.

It's when Spencer does those solos lines, 'Rape, Murder, it's just a shout away,' that causes me to wish I had been there to witness this live.

According to the web site JamBase.com, the song was not the only tribute the band did for Watts. A a few nights earlier, in Indianapolis, they performed, 'Moonlight Mile' and 'Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" on the evening of Watts' death.