Yes, and he works Catholicism into it as well.

And to reply to some of the “bar band” comments:

I think the point of The Hold Steady is that they’re like a glorious bar band; the absolute low of music (bar bands) dealing with the absolute bottom of society (drug-addicts, pimps, etc.) that generally has recourse to everyone’s real life, at least to some extent. The music, for the most part, supports and masks the lyrics, either with anthem-y guitar hooks or, more currently, marginally more inventive instrumentation. It’s guilty-pleasure rock music with some of the best lyrics in a long time – hardly bar music or indie-rock (whatever that is).