Welcome to Chillers, the ongoing series where we take a look at songs that give me goosebumps. Bi-weekly posting will be done on WordPress with a cross post to Bluesky.

Cast Iron Skillet is a poem, plain and simple. Jason Isbell effortlessly interweaves oppositions, forcing you to stop and think with every line. Each verse feels like a mirror—reflecting love, hate, and regret back at the listener in the same breath.

Two stories anchor the song between old adages and modern tragedy: one of a soft-spoken boy who turns into a murderer, and another of Jamie, a woman disowned by her father for finding love with a Black man.

Both stories carry the same refrain: “How did you get so low?”—a question that echoes through every generation, through every act of cruelty disguised as tradition.

By the time the last verse lands—“She found love, and it was simple as a weather vane, but her own family tried to kill it”—the song leaves you breathless. It’s tragic, beautiful, and deeply human.