[Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “Henry Lee” MP3] Just over the New Mexico border, in a town called Texaco, I stopped for gas. Across the street from the station was…
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Chapter 8: From Abilene
“I saw my first armadillo on the road to Abilene, but it was on it’s back, viscera spread across double-yellow lines.” [Talk Talk – “The Rainbow” MP3] A man drove his wagon…
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Chapter 7: Dallas (Bubba Kadane Part 2)
“When you were in Chicago in ’97, is that how you initially met Steve Albini?” I ask Bubba. “Well, actually, I met him at a show in Minneapolis in ’95, or something.…
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Chapter 7: Dallas (Bubba Kadane Part 1)
I’m staying at the Quality Inn Market Center in Dallas. This weekend, it just so happens, is the annual Mary Kay convention. Makeup retailers from all over the United States have congregated…
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Chapter 6: Notes From The Road (MO to OK)
[Drive Through Oklahoma With Oneida] “Pretty much every road I’ve been on has undergone serious construction and it really… it kind of, um…debilitates my driving when there is just one lane open…
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Chapter 5: From Independence
The drive from Saint Louis to Kansas City, Missouri is one road. Interstate-70. You would think that from downtown Saint Louis it’s easy to find the highway. This is not so. I…
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Chapter 4: Blueberry Hill
[Dead Meadow – “Let It All Pass” MP3] When I awoke, I was alone in the house. I found an envelope outside my bedroom door, with a note thanking me for getting…
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Chapter 3: Chicago (Jeff Mueller)
During my freshman year of college, I was constantly strapped for cash. It wasn’t like I was poor—money had been set aside for my first semester that was to be used for…
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Chapter 3: Chicago (Tim Midgett)
I was once in a car driving to Princeton Record Exchange with a friend. He reached for a CD and inserted it into his car stereo. As the first song began to…
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Chapter 2: Impulse
The sky is blue—but not peaceful blue—more like, potentially threatening blue. You’d know it if you’ve seen it. I’ve crossed the Ohio River into Indiana, and have roughly four and a half…