For every $50 donation, you will be entered into a drawing for a Taylor Guitar signed by all the artists throughout the year-long Alive and the Bluebird series.

Jason Isbell

Isbell has won Grammys for Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Song. The Americana Music Association named him Artist of the Year in 2015 and has awarded him Album of the Year two times and Song of the Year honors three times. Master songwriter John Prine, a key influence on Isbell, told the Nashville Scene, “I just feel proud that Jason is writing and putting out the kind of music he is.”

After working in the early 2000s as a member of Drive-By Truckers, Isbell left the band in 2007. The Alabama native has recorded six albums under his own name and with his band, the 400 Unit. His latest, The Nashville Sound, is nominated for Album of the Year at the 2017 CMA Awards.

Chris Tompkins

With over 15 No. 1 singles to date, Tompkins’ hits also include Tyler Farr’s “Redneck Crazy,” Florida Georgia Line’s “Dirt,” The Band Perry’s “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely,” Chris Young’s “Voices,” Luke Bryan’s “Drunk on You,” Carrie Underwood’s “Blown Away,” Frankie Ballard’s “Helluva Life,” and Blake Shelton’s “Sure Be Cool If You Did.”

“Blown Away” was awarded the 2013 Grammy for Country Song Of The Year nod, and “Drunk on a Plane” was proclaimed one of the “Songs I Wish I’d Written” at the 2014 NSAI Awards. In 2007, Tompkins tied with Josh Kear for the honor of MusicRow‘s Breakthrough Songwriter honor.

Amanda Shires

Amanda Shires is a singing, songwriting, fiddle-playing Texan. Shires has released six solo albums, her most recent To the Sunset on the Silver Knife label in 2018. In 2019, she founded a country music supergroup called The Highwomen. Along with Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Shires won the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album for their 2017 album The Nashville Sound.

Sadler Vaden

Acclaimed solo artist. Songwriter. Grammy-winning member of Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Producer. Studio musician. Modern-day guitar hero. A professional musician since the age of 18, Sadler Vaden has spent the better part of two decades on stage, on the road, and in the recording studio, lending his unique rock & roll approach to highly-revered bands, up-and-coming acts, and solo albums like his forthcoming Anybody Out There?

The full-length follow-up to his 2016 debut, Anybody Out There? mixes the hook-savvy sweep of Vaden's songwriting with the supersized stomp of his electric guitar. It's a modern record that doesn't ignore the past, balancing frequent nods to Vaden's 20th-century influences — including Neil Young, The Who, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh, and Oasis — with a contemporary sound that mixes raw, live performances with digital recording technology. Self-produced by Vaden, engineered by longtime collaborator (and multi-platinum producer) Paul Ebersold, and mastered by Grammy Award-winner Richard Dodd, Anybody Out There? is Sadler Vaden at his most adventurous, stocked with melody-driven songs that deal with the challenges of creating a true human connection in a modern, technology-obsessed world.

Raised in North Myrtle Beach and the outskirts of Charleston, SC, Vaden began playing gigs as a teenager, serving as the frontman of a locally-beloved rock & roll power trio named Leslie. The band shared shows with headliners like Drivin’ N Cryin’ and Jason Isbell, both of whom later recruited Vaden to join their own lineups. During his time with Drivin’ N Cryin’, he produced the band's series of Songs... EPs while also playing lead guitar on crowd favorites like "Fly Me Courageous" and "Straight to Hell." He left the group for Isbell's band in 2013, shortly before Isbell's career-shifting album Southeastern hit stores, and has remained an integral member of the group ever since, lending his vocal harmonies and song-serving guitar fretwork to Grammy-winning albums like Something More Than Free and The Nashville Sound along the way. Meanwhile, he has also continued releasing his own material, including his 2016 self-titled debut full-length and standalone singles like "Monster," the latter of which was hailed by Rolling Stone as a "T. Rex-evoking jam [that] doubles as a commentary on the U.S.'s negative political and social climate."

Vaden's diverse career continues with Anybody Out There? The title track mixes drummer Fred Eltringham's percussive thunder with a monster guitar riff co-written alongside Audley Freed, while "Next To You" is a highway-bound road song that nods to the Heartbreakers' heartland rock. The guitar tones and communal themes of Aaron Lee Tasjan co-write "Peace + Harmony" channel George Harrison, and the nostalgic "Modern Times" makes room for swirling Mellotron, acoustic guitar, and claves. The album culminates with "Tried and True," a guitar-heavy love letter to rock & roll music that concludes Anybody Out There? on an anthemic note.

"It's always been there for me, through the good and bad," Sadler Vaden says of the rock & roll genre, whose uplift and epic punch first convinced him to pick up the guitar as a 10-year-old. Years later, he's proudly carrying the torch, nodding to the rock & roll music that came before him while crafting some contemporary classics of his own.

Alive & The Bluebird 2022

By Alive

Alive & The Bluebird 2022