Isbell's working with the right people

While recording “Here We Rest,” Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit stayed true to their Muscle Shoals sound — and each other.

When songwriter Isbell headed into the studio with keyboardist Derry deBorja, guitarist Browan Lollar, drummer Chad Gamble and bassist Jimbo Hart, a tight team strengthened by months of listening to each other on tour needed only about three weeks to get the album done. “Here We Rest,” which takes its name from Alabama’s original state motto, came out Tuesday on Lightning Rod Records.

“When you have the right people together, you don’t have to spend a lot of time and money in the studio,” Isbell said. “This incarnation of the band has been solid for about three years or so, and I’ve known them longer than that. We recognize each other’s strengths and weaknesses at this point.

“I knew when I was writing this record that these guys could get my point across.”

Playing together night after night on the road gave Isbell and his colleagues the confidence to make the record they wanted.

“There’s no better team-building exercise than putting a bunch of people in a van for three months,” Isbell said.

The band members share a strong sense of trust, so they’re not afraid to speak up when something needs tweaking. While they were putting the new album together, Isbell relied on his bandmates to point out when and where a more uptempo — or simply more upbeat — song needed to enter the mix.

“I do have a tendency to write slow, depressing songs,” Isbell said with a chuckle.

Isbell said that, although he isn’t knocking the practice of hiring the best musicians out there at recording time, “I didn’t want to play with a bunch of hired guns. It would be a lot better professionally and creatively if I worked with people I trusted and respected.”

Don’t come expecting a note-for-note performance of the album. Wednesday’s live show will bring its own energy and will offer listeners a chance to appreciate the musicianship behind the new collection.

“We don’t try to replicate it exactly,” Isbell said. “I look at a record and a live show as two different things.

“The live show should be very energetic. It’s a lot different from driving home from work and listening to it in your car. There’s a lot of room for being introspective on a record.”

Producing “Here We Rest” themselves helped the musicians save money, but it also paid off handsomely with a new layer of pride in the finished product. Isbell said he’s pleased when people listening to the CD ask who produced it.

“It really makes you proud of it at the end if you can look at it and say you did it yourself,” he said.