I haven't heard from Hillig in a while, but he's one of those music lifers who keep trying to quit and simply can't. Or, in Hillig's case, gets dragged back by friends who believe. Friends like that are a treasure far beyond anything else.

Kye Alfred Hillig The All-Night Costume Company (self-released)

Hillig's work has generally meandered around folk music, but he's always been more than willing to get rowdy now and again. This album is one of his more diverse in sound (his 2010s efforts tended to be a bit more thematic musically), but his eye and ear for characters remains sterling.

This band (some of the friends who got him back on stage) has been with him for a while, and their easy conversations make these songs fall gently on the ears. Everything is in the right place, even when the subjects veer a bit.

No, this is not the album that will make Hillig a star. It won't even make him the most famous folk-roots-rock-whatever singer who calls Tacoma their home town. But his writing here is probably his most incisive and exacting, and his vocals match his band's easy flow. He quit after his last album, believing that music took more from him than it gave. I don't think that equation will ever change, but I'm thankful he's kept adding to that deficit.