Jason Isbell, back in Austin for 3 nights, is at the top of his game

Let’s start with a bold, if debatable, assessment: Jason Isbell has made better music over the last few years than anyone on the planet.

Such appraisals are highly subjective, of course, dependent on musical tastes and stylistic interests. But if you’re a fan of songwriting, and of music that draws upon a range of traditional American forms, it’s hard to find anyone who’s matched Isbell’s accomplishments this decade.

In 2014, he swept the Americana Music Association Awards, winning album, song and artist of the year on the heels of his 2013 album “Southeastern.” In 2016, the Grammys came calling, awarding him Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Song for 2015’s “Something More Than Free” and its single “24 Frames.” This year Isbell won both of those categories again, for 2017’s “The Nashville Sound” and its song “If We Were Vampires.”

The last two records also have accomplished rare commercial feats, simultaneously topping the Billboard rock, country and folk/ Americana charts in their first week of release. In an era when streaming has caused the album sales of even wellknown artists to decline precipitously, Isbell’s records continue to sell steadily, with each of the last three in the 150,000 range.

But the real rewards of Isbell’s music run far beyond metrics such as charts and honors. As a writer, he’s having the kind of run that approaches the primes of American masters such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.

It’s not just that he’s had high peaks with songs such as “24 Frames” and “If We Were Vampires,” or the pointed social observations of “White Man’s World” and the deeply personal dive of “Cover Me Up.” It’s how these albums hold together that stands out. There’s no filler on Isbell’s last three records: Every single song belongs.

“I enjoy the thought process that goes into making a full album,” Isbell said by phone in late July from Rhode Island, where he and his band the 400 Unit were preparing to play one of the storied Newport Folk Festival. “I like the themes that albums bring up, and the recurring musical and lyrical moments and references inside an album.”

Perhaps more importantly, he suggests, albums are good for the songwriting process in general. “If you’re focused on making an album rather than making singles, I think it does a lot for your creative quality standards,” Isbell says.

“I don’t want to make an album where a lot of songs are skippable. I’d like to make an album that people listen to from start to finish. And to do that, you’ve keep their attention, so you better have a whole lot of good songs rather than just a couple of anchors.”

THE STORY OF ISBELL’S path to where he is now has been well-documented, perhaps most succinctly summed up by a 2016 segment on “CBS Sunday Morning” titled “The Fall and Rise of Jason Isbell.”

Briefly: Talented young songwriter in Muscle Shoals, Ala., joins rising rock band Drive-By Truckers and helps take them to another level, until addiction issues break up his marriage and precipitate his departure from the band. Three albums for the New West and Lightning Rod labels from 2007 to 2011 follow, but it’s not until Isbell finally gets sober in 2012 that everything begins locking into place. He marries fiddle player Amanda Shires, starts his own Southeastern Records label, and his career takes off.

Drive-By Truckers leader Patterson Hood met Isbell in 2001 at a mutual friend’s house where a few folks were having a guitar pull. “He looked like he was about 15; he was heavy then, and baby-faced,” Hood recalls. “I remember him singing a song he’d just written, and I was like, ‘Damn, that’s one of the best things I’ve ever heard.’”

Isbell sat in with the band during a house concert at the same place later that year. “He joined the band literally the next day,” Hood said. “Honestly, the first day he was in the band, we were better than we had ever been.”

A week into Isbell’s tenure with the Truckers, he wrote “Decoration Day” at a tour stop in Houston. That became the title song for the band’s next record, which also included Isbell’s tune “Outfit.” Both remain staples of his live repertoire to this day.

Another memorable moment from Isbell’s tenure with the Truckers happened at the 2003 Austin City Limits Music Festival. “That was the first time I ever saw my wife, Amanda (Shires),” he says. “She was playing with Billy Joe Shaver that day at the festival.”

Somewhat surprisingly, that’s the last time Isbell played at the city’s biggest fest, which has yet to book him and his band. (Shires, who records albums of her own in addition to playing in Isbell’s band, was part of the 2016 lineup.)

“I had a great time when I was there; hell, I met my future wife there,” he said. “I’d love to come back and play it.”

THIS TIME AROUND, Isbell is booked for three nights at Bass Concert Hall, following multiple-night stints at ACL Live in the past few years as well as two tapings of the “Austin City Limits”