Hand-Picked Reels: Road Songs
Maybe it’s because I just moved from Austin to Denver, but I’ve had road songs on the brain lately. There’s certainly no lack of choice there, as songs about journeys fill the Americana canon. Lady Asphalt has been a consistent muse for songwriters; she provides excitement and freedom’s promise, danger and jittery glances back over the shoulder, and sometimes just exhaustion and longing for home. It’s no wonder that the Cohen brothers took a look at The Odyssey and traditional American music and put two-and-two together.
The road’s also a timeless, and yes, overused to the point of being cliched, metaphor for the internal journey. But it’s always worth revisiting. After all, this nation of immigrants is fed on a cultural diet of manifest destiny, pushing westward, starting over. But reality is usually less than gold paved streets, and real change is hard to come by. At the risk of sounding cliched myself, the ultimate trip is often less about geography and more about just figuring out ourselves in the whole durned human comedy.
So here are three songs that are about the road as a metaphor rather than literal place. They’re also all covers, musicians on fresh explorations of another artist’s work. Here’s hoping this finds you taking some trips of your own as we wind through these lazy dog days of summer.
Let’s kick off the series with John Hartford. Here he is at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1987, performing “Goin’ Down That Wrong Road Again.” This song was written by Alan Reynolds (who is best known for producing all of Garth Brooks albums, but don’t hold that against him) and made famous by Crystal Gayle. Featuring some tight guitar and foot work (that’s the scratchy, shuffling noises you can hear) by Hartford, it’s a classic tune about why you keep going back, even when you should know better.
Here’s Wimberley, Texas’ own Sarah Jarosz joining The Deadly Gentleman on stage for a bad ass cover of Monroe’s “Rocky Road Blues.” There’s even some rapping here courtesy of Greg Liszt, as the tune looks to brighter skies ahead beyond the heartbreak. This was shot at Rice Fest 2008 by Mike Abb, who also runs the SPPS youtube channel.
Finally, one of the most exciting bands to watch on the scene right now, Greensky Bluegrass, tears it up at Rothbury ’08 with a slamming cover of The Talking Heads’ “Road to Nowhere.” There’s a city in my mind/Come along and take that ride/It’s alright, baby, it’s alright…
