In Hugh Masterson's music, the common moments in our lives become poetic pinpoints, places for us to jump off from when we're trying to make sense of things. That one night at the bar or that moment of holding hands in the dark help translate the irreverent codex of our lives. This is relayed to us, as is with many singer/songwriters, in what seems to be a private conversation between the songwriter and each person who's listening. These aren't grand statements that are being made—things that might teeter on the edge of fantastical—but honest attempts at a human understanding. The music is highly personal on almost every level, and that form is reflected in his song "Small Town," the name of which alone hopefully implies this sense of closeness. But Hugh Masterson's folk music is not the folk music of yore: it takes on the harsher realities we face in life and love. He reconciles with the fact that happiness is not something you can just acquire and keep for as long as you like, but rather an ambivalent spectrum that each person has to figure out their relationship with. Happiness does look different for everyone, but Hugh asks a bigger question: what happens when you get all that you want and you're still not happy?