North

For album number two, New England folksinger Bill Morrissey adds a clarinet for the creaking “It’s Dangerous Out There” and continues to croak his songs with an empathy that understands the need for work even if he can’t quite find the words to admit he enjoys it. So “Night Shift” is all romance for a time and place he ponders nostalgically but would never willfully return. “Married Man” is a wry look at the pleasures and the clichés that come when a wanderer settles down. Only Morrissey can make the cold, quiet venture of “Ice Fishing” sound so joyous and sunny. No coincidence that he adds greater accompaniment to hide the solitary streak that runs through tunes like “Pantherville,” “He Drinks Alone” or “Snow Outside the Mill.” Much of Morrissey’s work has an autumnal flow, but with North he heads into the frigid winter cold with the same terse way with a story that gives you a second for your eyes to well up before being shuffled off to the next casualty.