Widely acclaimed as one of today’s finest narrative songwriters, Shindell has a rare gift for using detail to illuminate his character’ motivations and actions without ever getting mired in minutiae. Not Far Now’s nine new compositions (complimented by a pair of outside songs) are haunting vignettes that exist vividly beyond the song that documents them: Shindell gives the listener a window into these lives, but their story continues long after the window is shut. ‘Time deposits me, the character I’m writing about, and a listener there at the first line,’ he observes. ‘Then, at the end of the song, at the end of the last line, life and time go on. The song happens in between those two moments.’