Life & Time

Two Grammy-winning songwriters – one a former NFL footballer, Mike Reid, whose heavily grained voice carries these songs, and the other, songwriter-producer Joe Henry – deliver a fine set of 12 piano-led ballads steeped in lifetime, age, reflection and the spirit of Nashville at its early-hours best. They are quietly subdued, inward-looking songs, spare in instrumentation, finely crafted nuggets of words and music wrapped into perfectly formed wholes. The title-song is a lean, loner’s narrative, evoking the slow, stunning impact of displacement and irreversible change. They’re songs built on the classic structures of storytelling, with plenty of resolution, revelation and closure to fuel their way. They’re songs that have similar feelings to share out between them, and similar sonic textures of piano, upright bass and pedal steel. As a result, the collective effect can feel a little uniform, but the sheer quality of the performances, and the writing, carries it through.