JimmyT
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2/22/2007 10:19:01 PM
What IS this CD?
What is this "Horses to Highways" CD? Where is it coming from and what is it meaning to convey? It's been 5 years since Seven Shades of Blue, my last CD. Five years is forever, from an artist's perspective. A CD really should be a "snapshot"...a picture of the state of mind, and state of music, of the artist at that very point in time. When it spreads out across many years it starts to get a little fuzzy. Less concise, and not necessarily the picture it was meant to be.
After five years it becomes more of a collage. A little here...a little there..more like a photo album than a single picture. Which is ok. There's a little something for everyone on this disc. Blues, Country, Rock, even a little Gospel. But it can cause confusion as to what the artist is trying to communicate.
This album began as a political record. Well, not really political, but topical in terms of the state of affairs in modern day America. There are a few songs that fit that theme...most notably "Plastic World" and "The Road". There are a couple more that fit the theme that were actually left off. As the album grew and evolved, I just wasn't ready to go there with a few of them. Maybe some other time. But the song "I Am The Road" is still the heart of the album. Most specifically the last verse. There is an inseparable link between America and the road. In many ways, the road exemplifies the very concept of freedom. I mean...what could be more "free" than to be able to hop onto some means of transportation and go wherever you feel like going. At any time you want. With no checkpoints, borders, or boundaries. That is a wonderful blessing, and in some ways, a permanent curse. Modern America can no more abandon the automobile than we could the Constitution. It's just as important a part of our mindset and makeup.
This is something that many Europeans, and most of the rest of the world, don't fully understand. You see, they were the ones that stayed behind. Americans were the ones that picked up and left, hoping for a better life. As Steve Earle puts it (far more eloquently than I could), "And the restless shall go, and the faithful shall stay". Not that America is faithless. It takes a hell of a lot of faith to jump on a ship traveling thousands of miles across an ocean, not knowing what you'll encounter, or when, or IF you'll even live to come back.
So mostly, in amongst the love songs and the detours, this is an album about America. And how it has evolved from a land of infinite mobility into a land that simply, and literally, is running out of gas. No apologies, no regrets, but no delusions either. We are what we are. And I guess the question now is what we'll become if such a huge part of our psyche becomes more and more difficult to come by. What happens if we have to stay put. Can we live with ourselves...sustainably? I sure hope so, but we'll soon see. Cause as Alvin Toffler once said, "one thing's for certain...no one's pumping oil back into the ground."
Cheers...and enjoy!
JimmyT
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