We may be at the point where we can stop referring to Jason Isbell as a former member of Drive-By Truckers. Here We Rest, his third studio album as a solo artist, establishes Isbell as an artist and bandleader with his own nuanced artistic vision. The album takes its name from his home state of Alabama’s Reconstruction-era motto, and, appropriately, the songs are populated with lonely dudes and bar girls trying to re-piece together the puzzles of their scattered lives. “Codeine” paints desperate but immediately embraceable scenes where “she should be home by now, but she ain’t.” It is pitch-perfect Americana, full up with fiddles, stark confessions and backwoods phrasing like describing late-life dating as “bust your ass all day to play ‘hurry up and wait.’”

Isbell breaks from the hipster country mold with a marked lean toward the soul of his Muscle Shoals upbringing. The smoky “We’ve Met” seems a matured analogue to his anthemic signature Trucker tune “Outfit,” weaving regret in with the threads of blown opportunity and glints of redemption. The short, circus accordion interlude “The Ballad of Nobeard” leads into a suitable approximation of New Orleans funk on “Never Could Believe.” It’s not his only foray into Crescent City music; “Nobody Knows You” from Preservation finds him in fine voice with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, demonstrating how well he can step out of his stylistic comfort zone and sound more comfortable in the process.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Johnny Corndawg, and Brass Bed perform at the Parish Room at House of Blues, July 27, 2011, 9 p.m., $15.