Bob Dylan, I think, is the link. Mid-period, if my memory serves me well. The time when Dylan was still heralded as the saviour of the ‘song ‘n’ truth’. Something went wrong, middle-age took over and the pedestal lay vacant.

And guess what? The pedestal has a new occupant. A new mid-period Bob Dylan. The keeper of the song, the owner of the key. Jeff Finlin, is officially anointed the male singer/songwriter that it’s OK to like in this modern age of pap.

The Ohio born ex-member of the Marshall Crenshaw produced one album-wonder, The Thieves, has a sound enriched by a stellar cast of players - who have graced the back catalogue of musicians as revered as Tom Waites, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, Graham Parker and The Rolling Stones.

Jeff Finlin’s current album, Original Fin, was recorded in New York and sounds very across-the-Atlantic. Lyrically, Jeff’s words read like a novel. Crafted little stories of emotional depths and good-times depravation.

The track in question, that made me blub, is ‘Weight Of The Flame’. Not only is it a tear-jerker in structure and delivery, it is four minutes of art that crossed the generations. My 17-year-old son said: “Tell that man I love him.” Yes! Jeff Finlin has that touchy-feely effect.

Elsewhere Original Fin is faultless. Up-tempo numbers such as ‘Waiting On A Flood’ mix spiritually with slower takes like The Perfect Mark Of Cain’. It’s not an album full of throw-away singles but a must-take journey with a beginning, middle and end.