John McCutcheon - Cabin Fever: Songs from the Quarantine (2020)

John McCutcheon wasn’t planning to make this album, Cabin Fever: Songs from the Quarantine, but the chords and notes flowed out of his fingers and the songs rolled off his tongue as he sequestered himself in his cabin in the North Georgia mountains. Returning from an Australian tour in mid-March, he went into self-imposed quarantine and wrote one song a day for three weeks, fueled by long conversations with friends and long walks where he reflected on the past, present, and future. With his characteristic humor and his winning way as a storyteller, McCutcheon pays tribute to health care workers, offers an homage to John Prine, and ponders the ambiguities of human nature in this collection of moving songs that feature the spare atmospheric arrangements of McCutcheon accompanying himself on guitar or piano. The songs are expansive, welcoming us lovingly into their landscape with grace and inviting us to bask in their warmth.