This record truly reflects the uncertain times we live in – a global pandemic enacted against the backdrop of political instability on both sides of the Atlantic. Having already released a live duo album in June 2020 with bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding (with royalties donated to the Jazz Foundation of America's Covid-19 Musicians' Emergency Fund), Songs From Home reflects the uncertainty shared by musicians — and not just jazz — around the world, or as Hersch puts it, “The rug got pulled out from under us and our identity has been taken away. So all of us are thinking about how we're going to make a living until we reach whatever the new paradigm becomes.”

The neatly ironic ‘Wouldn't It Be Loverly’ opens the album, which Hersch says is “a benediction or an aspiration”. Already a master of the piano trio format in jazz, this collection, which embraces Glen Campbell's ‘Wichita Lineman’, Joni Mitchell's ‘All I Want’ and more down to earth readings of Ellington's ‘Solitude’ and Kenny Wheeler's ‘Consolation (A Folk Song)’, demonstrates his mastery of the solo piano in jazz. Having just reached the grand old age of 65, marked by the inclusion of the Beatles' ‘When I'm Sixty-Four’, his reading exemplifies his approach to his material throughout, treating each song with equal weight and respect.