The Delines write songs like short stories. Or maybe it’s the other way around — actual short stories set to music.

For nearly 15 years now, the Portland, Oregon, band has created gorgeous music at the crossroads of folk, Americana and soul, but most of all they serve as a vehicle for Willy Vlautin’s cinematic, slice-of-life storytelling.

Vlautin, formerly of Richmond Fontaine and an acclaimed author, has a keen eye for the outsiders and down-and-outs among us. The forgotten and invisible ones, far from flashy headlines and glitzy commercials. People working double shifts to make ends meet. The untold stories from thousands of motel parking lots. The quiet hardships as portrayed in recent films like The Florida Project and Nomadland.

Their new album, The Set Up, is out now, another collection steeped in down-to-the-bone realism. They’re all great, but this week’s pick goes to “Can You Get Me Out of Phoenix.”

Did I tell you my dad died in his car?
Had a heart attack
In Lee’s Liquor parking lot
A row of thousand-dollar suits
Hung from a back seat pole
In his trunk was everything else he owned
And underneath the spare, we found twenty grand
My mother took the money and put his ashes in the garbage can
But later on I got them out

Now that’s a piece of poetry and music you should spend some time with.