Nashville-based guitarist Audley Freed has toured with some of rock’s most iconic six-stringers, including Joe Perry and Peter Frampton. However, Freed’s best known for his stint with blues-rockers The Black Crowes. He was The Crowes’ lead guitarist from around 1998 to 2002. He toured extensively with the “Remedy” hit makers and can be heard on the studio album “Lions” and concert album “Live.”

Freed’s biggest highlight with The Black Crowes was when they backed Led Zeppelin guitar god Jimmy Page on a buzzed-about tour that produced the gold-selling “Live at the Greek” album. Most recently, Freed’s been a member of Sheryl Crow’s band. Last spring, he was part of the house band for star-studded concerts celebrating Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday.

Now, Freed has been tapped as a fill-in musician with Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Jason Isbell’s band, The 400 Unit. Longtime 400 Unit guitarist Sadler Vaden is taking some off to be with his family after the recent birth of his son, Theodore.

Freed will fill-in on guitar with Isbell for four concerts: Jan. 17 in Springfield, Missouri; a sold-out show Jan. 18 in Lawrence, Kansas; and Jan. 19 and 20 in Oklahoma City.

In an Instagram post today, Vaden wrote, “Honestly I wish I could be there just to witness a hero of mine rip it down with one of the best rock and roll bands going today.”

In his post, Vaden made it a point to clarify his absence from Isbell’s band was only temporary, adding: “I’m not going anywhere. And I’ll be rejoining the band in mid February to resume our regularly scheduled programming. Thanks for your understanding in advance. And rock on.”

In November, longtime 400 Unit bassist Jimbo Hart announced he was leaving the group permanently. Hart first stepped away that summer — initially on a temporary basis as the tour for Isbell’s latest album “Weathervanes” launched – “to take care of my mental health and resolve some old-school traumas,” he wrote on social media at the time.

In a November post on X/Twitter, Hart wrote “I’m grateful for all the years, all the faces I’ve played for in the course of the band’s history and proud of all we accomplished.”

Isbell later replied to a fan on X/Twitter asking if he had any comment on Hart leaving The 400 Unit: “I love Jimbo and I’ll miss touring and playing with him. Very glad he’s taking care of himself. Everything else anybody needs to know is in the statement he released.”

Hart had worked with Isbell since around 2006, long before Isbell’s 2013 breakthrough solo album “Southeastern.” The 400 Unit bass slot has been filled mostly by Anna Butterss, whose resume include work with the likes of Phoebe Bridgers. Drummer Chad Gamble and keyboardist Derry DeBorja continue to anchor Isbell’s band. For this tour, Isbell’s augmented his band’s lineup with multi-instrumentalist/backing vocalist Will Johnson, formerly of the band Centro-Matic.

Isbell is an Alabama native and former Muscle Shoals area resident since relocated to the Nashville area. He’s won four Grammy Awards to date. Isbell’s best-known songs include “24 Frames” and “If We Were Vampires.” He recently scored his first major acting role, in director Martin Scorsese’s 2023 true-crime drama “Killers of the Flower Moon,” now streaming on Apple+.

Isbell’s live shows are more guitar-heavy than his records, which already include skillful string-bending. The interplay between Isbell and Vaden was a frequent highlight, so it will be interesting to hear Freed in that tangle now for a handful of shows. It’s a safe bet Isbell’s cover of “Sometimes Salvation” — a 1992 Crowes classic recorded before Freed’s tenure but a song he performed often with that band — will make it into the set at some point. Isbell and The 400 Unit recorded “Sometimes Salvation” for his 2021 release “Georgia Blue.”

Audley Freed first found success with his North Carolina band Cry of Love, known for their 1993 rock-radio number-one hit “Peace Pipe,” which was recorded at Sheffield, Alabama’s Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. Along the way, he’s played guitar for acts ranging from the Dixie Chicks (now known simply as “The Chicks”) and Jakob Dylan and been a frequent guest musician with jam-band Gov’t Mule.

After his time in The Black Crowes, he continued to collaborate with his feathered former bandmates. Freed contributed to the song “Mother Of Stone” on Crowes singer Chris Robinson’s 2004 solo album “This Magnificent Distance,” and the debut LP by ex-Crowes drummer Steve Gorman’s new project, Trigger Hippy. In 2018, Chris Robinson was still estranged from brother/guitarist Rich Robinson, when he tapped Freed for a memorable tour called As The Crow Flies, featuring Black Crowes songs.

During much of his career, Freed has been happy to let his guitar speak for him. He has no social media presence, as far as I can tell. But Chris Robinson was eager to tout Freed’s skills, during our 2018 interview.

“First off,” Robinson said, “Audley is unsung in the broad spectrum of great electric guitarists on the planet right now, as far as I’m concerned. Wow, I mean, Audley has so much language and he’s so erudite with his musical language. He has so much soul too, he can express himself so many ways and he has so many colors and sounds and things that interest me. And you know what? It is a shame, because the way The Black Crowes operated, I didn’t get enough time to play music with Audley.”

Freed’s old pals The Crowes are in the news, too. The reunited Chris and Rich Robinson just released new song “Wanting and Waiting” from the band’s first album of original music in 15 years. Also of note, Marc Ford, who preceded Freed as Black Crowes lead guitarist, will be touring with respected alt-rock songsmith Lucina Williams this year.

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