Singer/songwriter Mason Jennings will release his ninth album, Minnesota, on September 13 through Stats & Brackets / Thirty Tigers. As its title suggests, Minnesota is an album inspired by the idea of “home,” and it draws upon Jennings’s desire to maintain a life in music despite having become a husband and a father of two.

But the album is not strictly autobiographical. Minnesota ’s themes deal with love in both its trials and its beauty, and the lyrics remain poignant throughout. They are not “love songs” as such, but introspective ruminations upon what it means to love.