A lot of songwriters are renowned for an ability to invent characters, worlds and riveting story arcs, all beneath those melodic, three-minute canopies.

Avi Jacob tells amazing and tuneful tales — but his songs are decidedly not the stuff of fiction.

The Providence-based Jacob, who plays tonight in the Tap Room at Westerly's Knickerbocker Music Center, says his experiences — and subsequent journeys through his own psyche — provide more than enough material for his Muse.

On his just-out debut EP, "Surrender," songs like "One and Only," "New England" and "All the Liars" certainly provide plenty of emotional and narrative heft and melody. Released on the prestigious Skate Mountain indie label and produced with spare but haunting empathy by the Felice Brothers, "Surrender" is starting to draw critical enthusiasm in the press as well as the international folk community.

At the heart of "Surrender" is the song "Pickup Truck," a heartbreaking confessional in which Jacob apologizes to his late father.

"Oh, dear father, you even sold your pickup truck when I was down on my luck /

And how did I repay? I let you down to die in Tennessee"

Yes, Jacob's father did in fact sell the titular Ford F-150 when Avi was in a bad place and needed money. It's also true that, when his father was mortally ill, Avi was focused on getting high. Partly through the act of songwriting, Jacob is in a much better place now, and the painful lessons learned in songs like "Pickup Truck" have had a profound experience on his psyche and professional career.

Last week from Providence — the songwriter also spent several years in such diverse and atmospheric environs as Boston and Charleston — Jacob spoke about life and music.

On the confessional nature of his songs and whether the writing process has a purifying quality:

Everything I've written is 100 percent true and from my own life. A lot of the songs come from dreams or, I think, my subconscious, so I go about writing all the time with the idea and belief that the songs will come out. The act of songwriting is therapy and working through stuff. Because of that, I've never tried to write a song with a fictional storyline, and I don't think I'd be any good at it.

On whether he can use the process of songwriting in a multi-faceted sense — for example, as a catalyst to work through problems:

Yeah, I certainly do that. A lot of times when I've been depressed, I didn't write at all. That was a problem. I have to find the will to write a lot of the time. At the same time, I try not to think about why I'm writing a song — I want to be able to let the song come out in a pure way.

On "Pickup Truck" and whether it's possible that the subject matter was so emotionally raw that Jacob considered abandoning the tune before he could finish:

Actually, it was the opposite. It was a beautiful experience. I wrote it while I was putting my son to bed. I always put him to sleep with music. I play the guitar and sing, and we both love the ritual. It can be pretty magical, and "Pickup Truck" came from one of those evenings. That the song was about my father, and I was able to sing to my own son brought the whole thing full circle in a way.

On songwriters that inspire him:

I want to feel like I imagined it must feel to have been Townes Van Zandt. He blew my mind. There were times when I was sober, but listening to Townes made me feel like I was on drugs because his songs felt so much like they'd formed in my own head and they spoke so much to me. I literally thought I was having a flashback.

I knew of course that I didn't write those songs, but I couldn't imagine how anyone could hit so hard both lyrically and musically. I got so much of what I needed from Townes — and of course Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. I almost don't listen to those artists anymore, if that makes any sense. I got what I needed from them.

On one of his pre-"Surrender" songs called "Cannonball," which has a much more pop-soul structure and full-band production:

(Laughs) Yeah, that's me, too. I also love old Motown and Percy Sledge and Otis Redding, and that's a side I'm trying to explore on a new album we're working on now. Most of it's written and ready to go. I'd like to take my band to maybe Austin or Mississippi to record in a southern, soulful environment.

I'm going to play solo at the Knick, and I love that intimacy, but I love to play with a full band, too. My ideal situation is to make listeners think AND dance. Think about how Otis Redding would take it down onstage, just singing with that incredible power and raw emotion — and then the whole band would just kick in with that big groove. That's my ultimate goal — to move in both directions at the same time.

Avi Jacon, 8 tonight, Tap Room, Knickerbocker Music Center, 35 Railroad Ave., Westerly; free; (401) 315-5070.