Jason Isbell's 3-night Ryman stand caps a breakout year

The last time Jason Isbell performed at the Ryman Auditorium — at last month's Americana Honors & Awards show — he found it hard to leave the historic venue. Literally. Every few feet, the singer-songwriter was stopped by a friend, fan or music luminary to congratulate him on his three big wins at the awards show: artist, album and song of the year.

"It was the nicest difficult load-out I've ever had to do," Isbell tells The Tennessean.

Lucinda Williams said hello, and so did Robert Plant, who told him, "You're at the top of your game."

"At about that time, Amanda, my wife, came down the stairs and said, 'Don't try to steal my husband, Robert Plant!' "

As Isbell remarked from the stage that night, "It's been a real good year" for the Alabama native, who now lives in Hermitage. He'll return to the Ryman this weekend for three sold-out concerts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Three-night stands, let alone sellouts, are extremely rare at the Ryman, and the feat isn't lost on Isbell.

"I didn't realize that that many people wanted to come see me," he says. "But I think a lot of that is owed to the venue and how great a place it is."

Though he's been a respected name in roots music circles for more than a decade — first as a member of southern rockers the Drive-By Truckers, then on his own beginning in 2007 — a lot more people started taking interest in Isbell last year, with the release of his fourth album, "Southeastern."

It was his first full-length effort since getting sober in 2012, after years of hard drinking. Critics and tastemakers were eager to share its songs and Isbell's story. He recounted his past with Terry Gross on NPR's "Fresh Air" and Marc Maron on his "WTF" podcast. He also did so through songs such as "Cover Me Up," which he wrote for his wife and bandmate, Amanda Shires.

"In days when we raged, we flew off the page/ Such damage was done," he belts over a lone acoustic guitar. "But I made it through, 'cause somebody knew I was meant for someone."

In the wake of "Southeastern's" acclaim, Isbell has been touring constantly, and doing so sober has been a different experience.

"It's nice to not just feel like hell all of the time, that's for sure," he says. "I'm a lot friendlier, that's a fact. But there are moments that are more difficult. Throughout the day, there are times when you have to remind yourself of why you made the decision to sober up in the first place. That can be a challenge, but I think that happens just as much when I'm home as it does when I'm on the road."

Home these days is "a nice house" in Hermitage, and since Isbell can still get to his family in Alabama in a couple of hours, he says "it's not really like I'm away, sometimes."

As a Nashville-area resident, fans sometimes paint him in contrast to the slick mainstream country being made on Music Row. Things aren't so black and white for him. At 15 he started his first band with his friend Chris Tompkins, who's written hits for Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood and others.

"I just consider it to be a different job," he says. "And I think the fact that they exist, and the fact that they bring in the kind of money and the kind of talent that they do, is actually pretty helpful to folks like us. ... We wind up working with a lot of musicians, (and) some of them are still working on those big Music Row kind of gigs, and they moonlight for people like us who make more independent music."

Now, Isbell is planning to get back in the studio to start work on the follow-up to "Southeastern." If everything goes as planned, they'll wrap up in March and shoot for a July or August release.

That should be good news for Isbell's most famous superfan: David Letterman. The late-night TV star has had Isbell and his band, The 400 Unit, on his "Late Show" twice, and after their first appearance, he asked if he could join the band. He later invited them to perform at his Montana ranch on the Fourth of July.

"His people did the production, so it was basically the size of a stage at Bonnaroo, but there were about 80 cowboys and their wives out there in the audience who didn't have any idea who we were," Isbell recalls. "It was pretty funny, but it was really fun."