Featuring Rob’s unmistakable voice and unique guitar technique, Come Around offers a fresh blend of blues, Americana, folk, and pop that carves a way through the current state of human dislocation with wisdom and humour.

On “Knives,” he views the extremes of love and loss against the realities of domestic life; in “Lightning,” painful flashes of recognition ultimately provide a vision of hope. Magnificent and touching, “That Bird Has My Wings” was inspired by the book of the same title by Buddhist author and death-row inmate Jarvis Jay Masters. In it, hope for freedom is found in the imagination and the natural world. And on “Work of Art,” the unlived life is recast as a thing of beauty.

Always an excellent storyteller, Rob also writes movingly of places in his life, evoking the joys of youth and the comfort of memory in “Shediac Bridge,” “Fisherman’s Rest” and “Amsterdam.”

Mixed by renowned engineer Rob Heaney (Patrick Watson, Emilie-Claire Barlow), Come Around features some of the finest folk/roots musicians on the Canadian scene, including versatile guitarist Rob MacDonald, keyboardist Bob Stagg, bassist Solon McDade, and singer-songwriter Annabelle Chvostek (who provides gorgeous backing vocals).

Recorded at six different studios due to COVID-19 restrictions, Come Around represents Rob Lutes’ vision for a sort of freedom that can come through struggles large and small.

“We had to make adjustments in the way we did this album. We couldn’t be together,” he said. “But from across the country, we found a synergy through these songs. It is as if we are in the room.”