In May of 2005 I graduated college. My diploma had to be mailed to me months later, as I was not in attendance at the ceremony. While my peers walked in their caps and gowns to shake hands with the president of the college, I sat at home planning a six-week road trip. The idea was to travel the country meeting and interviewing independent musicians in different cities. The goal was to create a travel book about America as seen through the eyes of the artists who captured the essence of the places in which they lived. In between sprawling conversations captured across the country would be vignettes from the road, tales of new friends, love interests, drunken escapades and straying from the beaten path. It’d be like Klosterman stripped of any pretensions. The tale of a 22-year-old trying to find his way away from and then back home.
It didn’t go according to my plan. Then again, when does anything ever work out exactly how we imagine it? It rained a lot that summer. Cancelations were commonplace. There were car problems, cassette recorder problems, computer problems, and camera problems. Yet I still think of those six weeks as perhaps the most educational, the most fun, the most spiritually rewarding experience of my life. Who cares if every publisher and editor and literary agent rejected my pitches once it was written. The process made it worthwhile. Read it. Enjoy it. Or don’t. It’s here if the mood strikes you.
Chapter 1 – Louisville (Part 1)
Chapter 1 – Louisville (Crain)
Chapter 1 – Louisville (Part 3)
Chapter 2 – Impulse
Chapter 3 – Chicago (Tim Midgett)
Chapter 3 – Chicago (Jeff Mueller)
Chapter 4 – Blueberry Hill
Chapter 5 – From Independence
Chapter 6 – Notes From The Road (MO to OK)
Chapter 7 – Dallas (Bubba Kadane, Pt. 1)
Chapter 7 – Dallas (Bubba Kadane, Pt. 2)
Chapter 8 – From Abilene
Chapter 9 – Ruby
Chapter 10 – The Sandoval Family
Chapter 11 – Joey Burns’ Guide To Tucson, AZ
Chapter 12 – Notes From The Road (AZ to CA)
Chapter 13 – From Los Angeles
Chapter 14 – The Road To Monterey
Chapter 15 – San Francisco (Bill Swan)
Chapter 15 – San Francisco (Tarentel)
Chapter 16 – This Is What It Is
Chapter 17 – From Tacoma
Chapter 18 – Notes From The Road (WA to MT)
Chapter 19 – From Billings
Chapter 20 – From Cody
Chapter 21 – From Rapid City
Chapter 22 – From Omaha
Chapter 23 – Notes From The Road (NE to IL)
Chapter 24 – Chicago (Rich Fessler)
Chapter 24 – Chicago (Jason Molina)
Chapter 24 – Chicago (Steve Albini)
Chapter 25 – From Port Clinton
Chapter 26 – Home/Hope