Dear Friend

Jonathan Wilson makes records that sound like they could have been made in 1972 in Laurel Canyon, and “Dear Friend” is the clearest example of the technique — a six-minute letter-song to someone he hasn’t seen in a long time, built on fingerpicked acoustic guitars and a small, warm arrangement that breathes like a house waking up in the morning.

The song is not in any hurry. It accumulates its warmth the way sunlight accumulates on a wood floor. By the end it’s a full-band benediction, and Wilson is still singing to his distant friend the same message — the year has turned, I’ve been thinking of you, I hope you are warm. Put it on with coffee and a sweater. The year has turned.