There’s comfort in what we know — and in Lutes’s healing hand

Rob Lutes The Bravest Birds Lucky Bear Records ¬¬¬¬ out of five Reinventing the wheel, as Rob Lutes proves on his sixth album, is highly overrated.

Lutes, a dependable songwriter with undeniable gifts, has assembled another collection of well-crafted tracks to keep the motor purring. Mercifully, he does here what he always does best, without forcing the issue or aimlessly looking for a new angle.

The tone is, perhaps, a bit more upbeat than usual (not that darkness has ever been a big issue on Lutes’s discs), as best exemplified by It’s Not Over, a heartwarming tribute to an enduring relationship, and The Tree, a gently propulsive, toe-tapping metaphor for a long love affair. In terms of a career move, however, The Bravest Birds stays the course, offering as comforting and reassuring a set as one could hope for.

Supported by a perfectly empathetic core band — longtime guitarist and indispensable collaborator Rob MacDonald, pianist Denis Ducharme, violinist Josh Zubot, bassist Rob Fahie, backup singer Josephine Von Soukonnov and drummer Mark Nelson — Lutes applies his gently gruff voice and lyrical picking approach to songs that range in style from the hushed and haunting wee-hours plea Still Dark to the cabaret-style As My Heart Will Allow and the jaunty rag Take It Nice, written with his wife, Monique Riedel.

One of the album’s most engaging hallmarks is its musical looseness, illustrated and thematically reflected in one of the standout tracks, Things We Didn’t Choose, a celebration of chance, accident and serendipity. Anchored by a chord progression and melody that evoke a Band-with-Dylan basement tape, the song is elevated by guitar and violin interplay.

Among the 13 mostly remarkable tracks are Ithaca Waterfall and Look Out Boy, both co-written with singersongwriter Dale Boyle. “Nothing heals like the constant flow of water on the land/ When your heart is almost dry, you’re gonna understand,” Lutes sings on the former. But a good song writer always knows something about healing through music. It’s the path taken by The Bravest Birds. Lutes has been there before and will be back again. Podworthy: Things We Didn’t Choose

The Bravest Birds will be available Jan. 29.