If We Were Vampires

Album: The Nashville Sound (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • Jason Isbell muses during this bittersweet song how love is forever but life is finite.

    It's knowing that this can't go on forever
    Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
    Maybe we'll get 40 years together
    But one day I'll be gone
    Or one day you'll be gone


    Isbell is joined on the song by bandmate and wife, Amanda Shire, who contributes harmony vocals.
  • An animated video directed by Joshua Britt and Neilson Hubbard was released featuring cartoon versions of Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires.

    "Joshua and Nielson did a great job of riding the fine line between literal and figurative interpretations of this song," Isbell told Entertainment Weekly. "I love the story the video tells, the colors, and the pace of movement. The song deals with death as motivation, the way love changes, and the persistence of time, and I see these themes in the beautiful animation."
  • This won for Best American Roots Song at the Grammy Awards in 2018.
  • Jason Isbell penned "If We Were Vampires" after Amanda Shires told him to turn off the TV (he was watching Hoarders) and write a song, because he was due to go into the studio on Monday. He is glad he obeyed his wife as the end result was one of the most successful tracks he's ever written.

Comments: 1

  • Robert from Attica, MichiganWell deserved Grammy!
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