I would grab-bag this album into alt-country folk, understated yet insightful, wry, cynical, humorous and candid observations on love, broken hearts, cinnamon in coffee and awkward wedding receptions.

While Hobbs has a restrained approach to singing, his tunes are by no means toothless and I pitty and applaud his past partners for providing such great material on love gone wrong, love gone right and love plain gone to dust.

His songwriting caught my ear with “Sunshine and Roses”where he lucidly explains,  “I know the colour blue when I hear it, It’s Emmylou ringing in my ears… I’ve read about the love that lasts forever, I’ve even felt it brush my shoulder in the hall.”  This album is full of such heart-hammered wisdom, which occasionally tempered with some humorous and candid takes on the less enjoyable chores in life.  Take, for example, attending an ex-love’s wedding in “Secrets of the Bride”: “I showed up a little drunk it’s true, didn’t know how else I could pull through, I still got a thing of you.”

This is a beautifully sounding record with multi-instrumentalist Christine Bougie, and Darcy Yates on double bass completing the trio and creating a very earthy, yet at times ethereal take on Hobbs’ alt-country folk compositions.