You didn’t have to know Joe Tullos personally to be moved by this, his final set of recordings. Tullos was a bit of a Renaissance man, but above all a songwriter who knew his stuff: A former member of the band Big Sun, he first had a song on a major label back in 1993 (for the New Orleans band Evangeline). Having survived cancer a few years back, Tullos was newly diagnosed last summer and began these sessions knowing the clock was running. He died in November 2020 soon after it was completed.

Tullos doesn’t shy away from the big issues in these lyrics, but he doesn’t make this album just a long farewell either—if there’s a running theme, it’s about getting all you can from the life you’ve got. That makes “Seen It Coming Down” the most memorable song here: It’s the one most directly about mortality, but it comes out with an uplifting tone. The words are addressed in part to his wife and friends (“When I got sick you were strong, it’s my turn to keep you from singing the same sad song/ We’ll be okay”). The chorus, about learning from the sun when you see it going down, is one that accepts and even celebrates the circular nature of things. It’s all set to a reassuring country-rock groove with Cajun-style fiddle, and the kind of memorable chorus hook Tullos never lost the ability to write.

The album is full of moments like that. It’s one full-throttle rocker. “Leave This Town” also slips in a couple of mortality references, but it’s mainly a universal song about the urge to escape, and the band slams into overdrive for its big finale. There are a couple of story songs, a kiss-off to an ex (“Flash of Darkness”), and a surprise nod to ’60s psychedelic folk in “Don’t Break on Me.” Though his singing voice is weaker than it was, he still has enough to work with, and his voice may remind you of Tom Petty more than once.

The closing piano ballad, “Next Town,” makes its effect because Tullos avoids saying an explicit goodbye. Instead, he writes about something he loved best, namely the life of a musician on the road, and the days when “motion and madness is on the menu for today.” It sounds like his one agenda for this album was to leave the world with some songs that would last.

—Brett Milano