STEVE Earle is a man of many parts, not least of which is his prodigious beard: singer, songwriter, part-time actor in HBO dramas, onetime prisoner and novelist (his debut, of the same name as this album, will be published soon).

So the last word you would expect to use of him is underwhelming, and fortunately we don’t have to use it here, although it was a narrow squeak. These songs of mortality are simple and pared down, and therefore do not sound like much on first listen.

Subsequent plays, however, reveal Earle to be on good form, recalling growing up in a military town on Waitin’ On The Sky, saying a belated adieu to President Bush on Little Emperor, or reflecting on spilt oil in The Gulf Of Mexico. Best of all is God Is Good, written by the agnostic Earle for Joan Baez, while Every Part Of Me is a typical and affecting piece of gruff romanticism (not mawkishness, as one soulless critic averred).