Jason Isbell relishing new sobriety

Boozing it up as a musician is one of those rites of passage that creative types are supposed to partake in. For Jason Isbell, it was one of those duties he was more than willing to execute throughout a career dating back to his time with the alternative Southern rockers the Drive-By Truckers.

That is until future wife Amanda Shires took him up on one of his many offers to go to rehab. It’s a choice he embraced back in January 2012, and it has yielded musical fruit in the form of the dozen songs that make up last year’s studio album, “Southeastern.”

Isbell can be seen on Saturday at the Fox Theatre, where he will open for John Prine.

The Alabama native’s fourth solo album has struck quite a chord thanks to Isbell’s rich, character-driven mini-sagas embraced by predominantly acoustic arrangements. It deservedly wound up on numerous best of 2013 album lists, and many are saying this may be his best solo outing to date. And while the idea of making music without knocking a few back might have been cause for concern, Isbell was pleased with how abstaining from alcohol affected his first post-rehab recording.

“(Sobriety) gave me more time to work,” Isbell said in a recent phone interview. “I didn’t feel like I was spending hours a day recovering from the night before or spending a lot of time out at bars. When the sun went down when I was drinking, I always felt like I should be out somewhere socializing and having a few drinks, which usually turned into a lot. The next day, it took me a few hours to get moving, so I didn’t have to worry about that and (making music) became a whole lot easier.”

With the only hiccup being the fact that new buddy Ryan Adams wound up begging off of producing “Southeastern” due to scheduling conflicts, the recently minted teetotaler tapped Dave Cobb (Shooter Jennings, Jamey Johnson) to slide into Adams’ slot.

Without missing a beat, Isbell came away with a number of introspective songs. Among them are “Elephant” and “Yvette,” moving ruminations framed in quasi-acoustic arrangements about cancer and sexual abuse respectively.

Isbell grew up in the northern part of Alabama, not too far from Florence, where the storied Muscle Shoals and Rick Hall’s FAME (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) studios are located. Here, the quartet of Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins, Jimmy Johnson and David Hood were the session musicians behind seminal recordings by an enormous array of artists including Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Tom Jones, Wilson Pickett, the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan.

It was here where Isbell hooked up with Hood’s son Patterson, who had founded the band Drive-By Truckers. After meeting up with the younger Hood around town and playing a few shows together as a duo, Isbell joined the band right after college when a slot opened up in the group.

Isbell brought then-spouse Shonna Tucker into the band to play bass in time to record with the group on its fourth album, the 2003 release “Decoration Day.” For a while, the Truckers were a good fit for Isbell, and he remained in the band for two more albums, 2004’s “The Dirty South” and 2006’s “A Blessing and a Curse.”

But as time went on, Isbell’s relations had deteriorated with both his wife and other members of the Truckers. When asked about that, the 35-year-old singer-songwriter is refreshingly candid about why he left the group in 2007.

“We just didn’t get along anymore,” Isbell said. “We’re all fine now. I’ve actually been in contact with Patterson quite a bit. But I was getting divorced and we were both still in the band. Plus there was a lot of (expletive) going on at the time. I was drinking way too much. I mean, we all were. I know for a fact that I was drinking too much. We just didn’t like being around each other anymore. It’s just like having a bunch of roommates that you sometimes just get tired of having.”