Mike Ward lives each day to the fullest.

The Detroit singer-songwriter and guitarist reconciles the past and embraces the future on The Time That Remains.

“I feel like I know these songs the best,” said Ward about his new folk album. “When I released The Darkness and The Light, most of those songs I knew as well as these. I feel like these songs are a lot closer to me than anything I’ve done.”

For his seventh release, Ward gets up close and personal about love, loss, and wisdom across the album’s dozen tracks. He spent considerable time fine-tuning the album’s evocative lyrics, heartfelt vocals, and earnest instrumentation before going into the studio last fall.

“This is unlike any album I’ve done because the songs have been performed out more than any of my other albums,” Ward said.

“When we recorded it, we produced 15 songs, but we trimmed it back because we felt these were the songs that hung together [the best]. At one point, we had a working title called Prayers, Parables, and Pet Peeves, and those are the buckets [the songs] fell into.”

I recently spoke with Ward about The Time That Remains ahead of an August 3 album release show in Ferndale, Michigan.

Q: The album’s title comes from the lyric “With the time that remains” in “Why Not.” How did that lyric lead to the album’s title?

A: I wrote other titles, and we considered the Prayers, Parables, and Pet Peeves title. Near the end of the process, I had a couple of outside individuals become involved. Max Cullen, who is married to my niece, has the same job I had in advertising; he’s a creative director. He’s done a lot of album concepts, covers, and designs.

I asked him if he would design the cover and he said yes. I sent him all the songs and a list of working titles that we had. One of them was The Time That Remains. Like a good ad person, he came back to us and shared a presentation that took us through the concept of The Time That Remains.

He said, “If this is the title, then here’s what makes great sense as a visual.” He recommended a photographer in Lansing, Steven Glynn, who uses tintype, which is an old photography technique. We contacted Steven, and we went over there with Max and did a shoot that day. We took a couple of different shots of me and then we shot the guitar as well.

Q: On “Why Not,” the state of the world weighs heavily on your mind. How did the song become a vehicle for encouraging people to help each other?

A: When I have played it, people get how the song starts out small, gets broader as it goes on, and ends at a point where it’s up to us on a personal level. One of the things I have to work at is not being too preachy, especially when I’m writing about things on a political level. It’s one of the areas where I try to find balance. I’ve been looking at not only how that affects the world in general, but also how it impacts people’s relationships. It goes as wide as the country, but as narrow as some relationships and the struggles people are having.

Q: “Paycheck” examines relying on a steady income to survive. How did hearing about the financial struggles of everyday people inspire this song?

A: When you think about the jobs that you’ve had, you start at one point and you’re striving to get that paycheck. You lean into it more and more, but before you know it, you’re dependent on it. For so many people, their job becomes their identity. Whatever they’re getting that paycheck for, that becomes their identity. The amount of hours you put in and the amount of time you give up, all those things are part of it. I’m also excited to be releasing a new video for the song soon.

Q: “Paul” revisits the grief and guilt you and your family experienced when your older brother died in a car accident at age 16. How did writing this song help bring you some closure?

A: One of the things you’re always struggling with is blame. The level of blame and the level of guilt are the same. When I was in high school, I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 17 because my brother died when he was 16. The high school was right next to the cemetery where his grave was. In the last verse where I say, “I sit on his grave and stare into the stone,” I literally would sit on his grave and talk to him. It doesn’t sound like a big age gap, 11 to 16, but an 11-year-old to a 16-year-old might as well be 50 years. In our case, there were two brothers between us, so you had that distance multiplied.

The life that your family has after a tragedy like that is a defining line. In the song, I say, “There was life before and life after,” and that’s exactly the way it was. Every Christmas was different because it happened the day after Christmas. I didn’t know this for a long time, and I was 35 when I found this out about my sister. She harbored so much guilt within herself because she wanted the car that night.

Q: How were you able to write “Paul” after all that time?

A: I played it at the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance conference [in May]. When I introduced it, I said, “I’ve been working on this song for 60 years—the processing of it.” It started as a poem five or six years ago, and I had written this outline of a poem. There are a couple of lines from it that ended up in this song. It rumbled around in my head for a long time, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to write it.

Last fall, I went up to Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters [in Lake Leelanau, Michigan], and the day before, Angie and I were walking through Wayne State University. All of a sudden, I just stopped, and I had the motif for the song and recorded it into my phone. When I got up to Lamb’s, I just wrote and stayed up until midnight and constructed the shell of the song. I also used it as the prompt for my Song Haul [songwriting] group during the next meeting and received feedback.

The night after I came back from Lamb’s, Michelle Held came over, and we were both working on songs about our families. She helped me trim and hone it and then she started singing harmony on the chorus. By the time she left, we had a song. When it came time to record it, there was no doubt about who was going to sing on it with me.

Q: “Pet Peeves” includes a list of things that irk you the most. How did this become such a fun song to write and perform?

A: “Pet Peeves” was fun to write. Because it’s me, I have to take a swipe when I can in the political arena as well, including [jabs at] the insurrectionists and overfunded political races. What helps a song like that is when you put together unrelated things. At shows, I would tell people, “I have an email list over there. If you want to leave me a two or three-word pet peeve, it might end up in this song.” At the break, I would take a look at them all and insert a couple from the audience into the song. The trick of it is you have to find them and then you have to find a rhyme. You can’t just throw them in, but a couple did make it into the song. “Deer tick bites” and “July Christmas lights” came out of some people’s lists. This song has been a solid favorite at every show.

Q: “Let the New Renew You” celebrates new moments and new chapters in everyday life. How did writing this track rejuvenate you?

A: I was working on this song around the time of my son Danny and daughter-in-law Emily’s wedding. I didn’t have a point of view for the song yet and then I realized, “This is about them and how I feel about this new situation that [they] have, but I was also trying to make it a bigger thought.” The lyrics about “A ring … a hand / The power of and” it’s really for them. When I got it to a good point, we were going to New York for their wedding. We had a family dinner the night before the rehearsal and I played it for them.

It felt like a positive and uplifting song, and then I asked Annie Bacon and Emily Slomovits to sing on it. Annie said, “If you’re open to it, I have this idea that we should do a call and response at the end.” When I play it live, it works really well. I’ve had to learn how to instruct the audience on how to sing it and do the call and response. I can sing, “Let the new renew you,” and they just call it back.

Q: “Wipe Away” is about seeing relationships change over time. How did you explore that mindset for the song?

A: It’s definitely the end of something. The reference to the “dotted line,” it’s the splitting up of assets or a relationship. We have several friends who have gone through that, and I was contemplating their pain. The song starts out on a little bit of a lighter note, but it hits you harder as it goes along.

I was also consciously trying to use a motif in the song of “wipe away.”  I thought, “What are all of the things you can wipe away without repeating them too often, but also repeating them enough that they almost become invisible in the song?” Musically, I was trying to do something with a minimal number of chords. That ended up not happening because I added things to it. I have a lot of heart for this song, but I have not played this song out yet.

Q: You’re a prolific songwriter. How did you accumulate so many songs for this album?

A: I continue to write because I’m part of two songwriting groups—Song Haul and Song Salon. For one of them, we have to do a new song every month. Everything is done in the spirit of the song and how we hear it. I often start new songs in my notes on my phone, and that’s where I tend to start a lot of things. I lean on my notes and the recording aspect of my phone. I’m also inspired by my wife, Angie. She’s been on board with me this whole time, and thank God she has because she’s a great listener and supporter, and now she’s become part of the community.

Q: The Time That Remains was recorded at several places, including Rooftop Recording, Willis Sound, and Wayne State University’s Old Main Recording Studio. How did the 12 tracks for the album come together across all of those studios?

A: We started recording in October, and we spaced it out because of shows that I had or travel that we had. We did a few tracks and then we did a few more of my tracks. After the first of the year, we started adding all of the other parts. I recorded my parts with the guitar and vocals and then Dave [Roof] added the bassline. Then we started to figure out what else we wanted to do.

We did some things at Dave’s studio. My daughter Emilia Ward (backing vocals) was one of the first people to come and record. She did six songs at Rooftop Recording. Then we had two recording days that we did at Willis Sound. Dave can book studio time and work there. It was nice for Annie Bacon (backing vocals), Emily Slomovits (backing vocals, violin), Jason Dennie (mandolin), and Sara Gibson (cello) because they don’t live too far from there. Sara and Jason recorded over two sessions.

Then we spent a day in downtown Detroit at Wayne State University’s Old Main Recording Studio. That’s where Terry Birkett (backing vocals, guitar) came in and recorded for “The Heart Must Pay the Price,” which was released as a separate single in April. Judy Brown (backing vocals) and Michelle Held (backing vocals) also came in for a session, but Larry Labeck (pedal steel) recorded at Rooftop Recording. Kate Hinote (backing vocals) has a studio in her house, and she did her parts remotely and sent them. It was a lot of days and a lot of layers, but in the end, I feel like everything had the right part.

Q: You have a July 17 show with Jackamo and Cold Leather Seats at New Dodge Lounge in Hamtramck, Michigan. What can people expect from that show?

A: Sara Gibson and Judy Brown are going to join me for that show. Jimmy Showers from Jackamo is gonna play guitar on “Transistor Dreams,” and we’re gonna end our set with that song. It’s another single that was released separately from the album in May.

Q: You’re celebrating the album’s release with an August 3 show in Ferndale. The show is part of the “Music at the Gazebo” house concert series. What do you have planned for your set?

A: I don’t think I’m gonna do the full album. I might intermix it with other songs or have the first set be the album and the second set be some favorites. I’ll be playing with Dave Roof, Sara Gibson, Judy Brown, Annie Bacon, Kate Hinote, Michelle Held, and Emilia Ward.

Q: What will your next album be like?

A: I have new songs that I’m working on. I’ve decided whatever I do next musically is going to be pretty bare bones. It will be me with a guitar and Dave [Roof] on bass.

Mike Ward performs August 3 for the “Music at the Gazebo” house concert series in Ferndale, Michigan. To RSVP for the show, click here.