Canadian singer and songwriter Fred Eaglesmith makes music that lives somewhere between country and contemporary folk, with a dark rock & roll undertow. Eaglesmith's songs frequently deal with themes of a hardscrabble existence where liquor, drugs, and desperation are facts of life along with love and good times; his lyrics and delivery can be sorrowful, energetic, or sarcastic depending on the song. As distinctive as his material may be, his peers have shown their admiration by recording his songs, with Miranda Lambert, the Cowboy Junkies, and Alan Jackson among the artists who've covered his work. His 1980 debut, Fred J. Eaglesmith, is a quiet but rootsy effort that showed off the influence of John Prine; 1997's Lipstick, Lies & Gasoline is a gritty set with a greater emphasis on electric guitars and percussion, and 2020's Alive is a concert recording capturing Eaglesmith on-stage with Tiffany Ginn.