Songfacts®:

• Well, I tried to open up my windows and let the light come in
  I step outside in the middle of the morning and in the evening again
  Yes, I tried to be grateful for my devils and call them by their names
  But I'm tired by the middle of the morning and I need someone to blame
  
  Jason Isbell cuts right to the core of early pandemic woes. Written in lockdown, he grapples with a world reshaped with no clear escape. Fueled by Isbell's raw, emotive voice, the song mirrors the agony of clutching at identity while drowning in isolation.
  
  "It was about trying to keep my mind from unraveling over the couple of years there," he said of the track.
• I know you're scared of me, I can see it in your face
  I can feel it in the way you move around this place
  I know you're scared of me, I can see it in your smile
  Like an unattended child you can't quite trust
  
  Isbell and his wife Amanda Shires spent lockdown together, and at times it took its toll. This song gets quite personal. "That was a tough one to write and a tough one to sing," Isbell told Apple Music. "I know there's some assumptions in there, and there's this sort of feeling of living in under the same roof through the pandemic and feeling so disconnected from each other."
• Isbell recorded "Middle Of The Morning" for Weathervanes, his ninth studio album and the sixth accompanied by his backing band the 400 Unit. On Isbell's mind are cruel addiction ("Death Wish") high school shootings ("Save the World") and domestic crisis ("Miles"). Asked by UK newspaper The Sun why he called the album Weathervanes, Isbell replied, "A weathervane tells you which direction the wind is coming from. A songwriter does something similar."