Windfall

Joe Pug’s third album features a fuller sound and is his most accomplished yet. His fingerpicked guitar and vulnerable vocals are backed by piano, upright bass, harmonica, mellotron, pedal steel, and drums. But the album\'s essence is its focus on resilience, as he channels emotional turmoil into lyrics that are instructive and optimistic. Pug has a poetic gift for finding solace in hard times without getting mired in moodiness. Lines such as “every dying ember, every setting sun, could not cast a shadow, on the race we have run,” from “The Measure,” reveal that glimmers of hope and redemption are always at hand for those brave enough to look for them.