Dave Boutette’s last album, from late 2011, was titled “Mending Time.” That was fitting, since the record was about hard times, loss and healing.

“Yeah, there were definitely some big changes in my life leading up to my writing those songs,” says Boutette, the longtime Ann Arbor-area singer-songwriter. “It was really a difficult time—a time of transition,” he adds, although he prefers not to go into the particulars.

But the record was not emotionally monochromatic. “I tried to inject feelings of hope into those songs,” he says. “Even when I was feeling really down, I could always see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I wanted to convey that in the songs.”

Now, fast-forward a couple of years, and Boutette has mostly emerged from that tunnel, and out into the light—and is looking forward to new experiences, new adventures, and making music.

One of those new experiences: He’s getting married in September—to a woman he knew back in junior high school, but who later moved away from the area, and then returned a few years ago.

“Yeah, I remember us going to a dance together in the 8th grade,” says Boutette. “We were always friends, but after high school, I did my thing, and she went off and did her thing”—which at one point included working as a Radio City Rockette.

“And then last year, we found each other, and it’s been great. We had the same childhood experiences, we speak the same language, and we know the same streets,” he adds drily.

“And she’s inspired at least three of my new songs so far.” One of them, Boutette describes, is, simply, “about falling in love with a Rockette.” (She now works as a drama therapist.) ”I was very lucky, that we were in the same place at the same time, and were able to reconnect like that,” says Boutette, 47.

He’s written a handful of new songs for his next album, “and I also have several left over from ‘Mending Time’ that will also go on the next record,” says Boutette, who performs at The Ark on Friday. He plans to go into the studio later this year.

Bouttette is an affable sort, with a talent for writing amusing / good-natured / slightly surreal songs, and one new one that falls into that category is about the “the butter boy at the Manchester Chicken Broil.”

For the uninitiated, Boutette explains that, “at the Chicken Broil, they have this guy, the butter boy, who walks around with a container of butter, attached to a wand, and he sprays down the chickens. I thought, ‘Wow, this could be interesting,’ so I wrote a song about him.

“It’s sort of an epic, but tongue-in-cheek, tall tale, but it has its feet on the ground.”

Hm, sounds like something John Prine would write about.

“Right,” says Boutette in reply. “Prine is definitely one of my songwriting heroes”—with some others being Bob Dylan, Chuck Brodsky and Neil Young. Stylistically, Boutette’s music draws largely on roots-music forms like the blues, folk, roots-rock, vintage country and swing, and he’s a big fan of the Band and the Jayhawks.

Another new song uses the issue of light pollution as a symbol of something more personal, more human.

“I read a story about light pollution, about how the city lights are now so bright that we can’t see the stars any more, which was not the case for previous generations,” ponders Boutette. “So, I got the idea of using the idea of light pollution to say something about how many of the things we long for, the things we are after, are things we have in common. Even though we’re unique individuals, many of us have the same needs and longings. So, I used the idea of us not being able to see the stars as a unifying thread to convey that.”

Local rockers of a certain age may remember that Boutette tore it up as the guitarist for the alt-rock band the Junk Monkeys for about 10 years, until 1993. They’ve had a few reunion shows in the last several years, “and I still do enjoy playing loud, and fast, but the last couple of times we did those reunion shows, we found that it’s not as easy to play that fast, for that long, as it was when we were in our 20s,” he says with a laugh.

The Monkeys made a couple of albums for the Warner Bros./ Metal Blade imprint in the early ‘90s, and toured the nation as opening act for bands like Goo Goo Dolls and Hootie and the Blowfish, “but we kept running into roadblocks when it came to getting to the next level. I was getting ready to turn 30, I didn’t have any money in the bank, so I went back to school (Eastern Michigan University), to get my degree in marketing.”

Boutette had a marketing position with Whole Foods for four years, but decided that office work wasn’t his thing, and turned his focus back to music—but he’s had a day job working the Ann Arbor Whole Foods store for about 10 years now, sometimes full time, sometimes part time.

And he continues to have a strong following in Northern Michigan, and plays many gigs up there during the summer months.

Boutette is happy to make music in any setting. He plays about eight gigs a month - “at libraries, gazebos, folk-music clubs, pubs, listening rooms, senior centers…. I had to learn some of those old standards for the senior center shows, like ‘I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover,’ and ‘Zippity-Do-Dah,’ because those folks really love those old songs.

“And, learning those, I remembered that so many of those old standards had such fabulous, timeless melodies. They’re so universal, and people will still remember them 50 years from now.”

Kevin Ransom is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at KevinRansom10@aol.com.