An oft-covered songwriter and storyteller, Jim Lauderdale makes it look easy. He’s been a fixture of Nashville’s country and bluegrass scenes for decades, all while showing off his breezy range via a wide breadth of collaborations. You might find him sitting in with Trisha Yearwood, Ralph Stanley, or Catherine Britt, or flirting with jazz and salsa alongside The Waybacks. Meanwhile, his solo songs slot neatly into the classic country tradition—complete with scene setting, character arcs, and Lauderdale’s resonant, lived-in voice—even as he updates them with his own idiosyncratic touches. He penned 1991’s “The King of Broken Hearts” after reading an anecdote about Gram Parsons calling George Jones just that, and he delivers 2006’s “I Met Jesus in a Bar” like a warm and friendly joke you might hear in the titular setting. And despite being able to express heartache ever so poetically, he almost always has a bit of fun with it too. On 2025’s “Little Bitty Diamonds” with The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, he indulges in punning wordplay like “pretty little pain drops,” while the same year’s “Artificial Intelligence” proves he can locate cosy foibles within the unwieldiest of subjects.