Meanwhile, I'm counting the days until the roads are dry and clear in Maine, and missing my iron. Bought this here truck from Bee Pierce in Marfa TX three years ago and have had a lot of fun with it ever since. It's hibernating in a Maine barn for the winter. I'll turn it loose in April.
The other truck stays in Texas. Both trucks were nothing special: cheap, dusty old W Texas trucks. But they cleaned up pretty well. Hector Sanchez repainted the '85, and did a great job. Ricky Rojo did some excellent mechanical work, in his backyard: backyards are the best place to work on old trucks. These are not exactly fuel-efficient machines. On the other hand, we are recycling a heck of a lot of metal here.
My favorite road songs? Well, no one asked, but I like the genre, so here are a few that come to mind. For me, a road song is about the distance between here and there; and how distance hurts; and also--and sometimes at the same time--how liberating and uplifting it can be. Road songs have special resonance when the player or listener is feeling far away from something, or someone, important. Road songs are about going away, or coming back, and how mixed-up, clearheaded, horny, lost, sad, happy or hopeful the experience of accumulating distance makes us humans feel.
Guitar Town by Steve Earle.
Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight by Rodney Crowell
Fisherman's Blues by Mike Scott
Northwest Passage by Stan Rogers
Jackson by Lucinda Williams
Catskill Mountain Air by Abby Newton
Shenandoah (traditional)
Boomer's Story (traditional)
Loving Spoonful Mississippi John Hurt
She Ain't Goin' Nowhere (She's Just Leaving) by Guy Clark
Farewell to Nova Scotia (trad.)
Nice list, Peter. I especially like the Mississippi John Hurt song and the Rodney Crowell number. I won't take anything away from the list but `i would like to add a couple:
ReplyDeleteAnything by Marshall Tucker Band (Take the Highway, This Ole Cowboy, 24 hours at a Time, etc etc).
Anything by Allman Brothers (e.g., Melissa, Ain't Wastin' Time no More, One Way OUt etc etc).
Also Van Morrison is great at night for some reason--not so much a daytime thing.
Thanks for the ideas, Chris Mullen