Last Wednesday (July 5), Jason Isbell took to the stage in Seattle, Washington with his band the 400 Unit, and called upon Pearl Jam legend Mike McCready to help close the set out in stunning fashion.
McCready joined Isbell for a set-closing rendition of This Ain’t It, which played host to a no-holds-barred guitar solo duel of the highest order that (fortunately for us) was captured by YouTube user Jesse Cornett.
And, while McCready was playing a 1960 Fender Stratocaster for the occasion, he wasn’t playing the 1960 Strat – instead, he borrowed one of Isbell’s, who in turn opted to play both a blackguard ‘50s-era Fender Telecaster and a 1961 Gibson SG on the track.
The nine minute performance (spotted by MusicRadar) began as a faithful version of Isbell’s 2023 cut, though it soon turned into a full-throttle fretboard throwdown when Isbell swapped Fender for Gibson (visible at around the 4:10 mark in the video below) as McCready and 400 Unit guitarist Sadler Vaden noodled away.
Vaden, wielding an SG of his own, completed the trifecta of onstage guitarists, who locked fretboards in the middle of the stage for a three-strong solo that saw each player layer up, counterpoint, and harmonize each motif.
Notably, each guitarist seemed satisfied sharing the spotlight with their fellow six-stringers, and, rather than taking turns dazzling the audience with their own expertise, instead opted to concoct a soundscape solo that swelled to a blistering finale.
“Tonight in Seattle Mike McCready played MY 1960 Strat,” Isbell wrote on Instagram after the gig. “That was cool as hell.”
The fact Isbell opted for a Tele for at least part of the song comes as no real surprise, given that the country guitar hero once told Total Guitar he believed the Telecaster to be “probably the best guitar design, ever.”
“I think about Albert Collins and that ice pick tone, and then Muddy Waters playing slide on a Telecaster,” Isbell said. “Then there’s the thicker Tele tones, like Danny Gatton. Definitely with Keith Richards there’s a tradition of that guitar, but it doesn’t really apply to anybody else.
“Without a doubt it’s the best rhythm guitar. I think it’s probably the best guitar design overall, ever.”
As for McCready, his allegiance to the Stratocaster is well-documented, thanks to a legendary connection to a fabled 1960 Strat that was first believed to be a ‘59 iteration.
It’s not the first time the Telecaster and Stratocaster masters have teamed up on stage: last year, the pair performed Little Wing together.
