Confessions of a Fanboy

In a surprise to no one, I’m way behind updating the site with the Springsteen set list from Greensboro and my road trip there to see it.  I’m actively working on it and hope to soon have the update ready.  In the meantime, I wanted to share a bit of the road experience with you.

I hate driving.  My mind wanders and I get bored and restless.  A recipe for safety this is not.  I guess I wanted to see this second Springsteen show pretty bad to undertake an 8-hour solo road trip.  Of course, to quote Metallica, I was by myself but not alone.  I had my iPod and untold thousands of songs to keep me company.  As you might expect, Springsteen dominated a large portion of the driving but the best part of the commute was a happy accident.

My mind was beginning to dull through the monotony of seeing nothing but road for miles on end and the pervasive grayness and occasional rain that hovered over me as I chased the E Street Band and a storm front across the southeast and back again.

Just before I began my climb through the Smoky Mountains in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, I put on Barrett Martin’s upcoming solo album Zenga.  The Smoky Mountains may not have been the visual images that inspired these compositions, byt Martin has said he tends to be inspired by landscapes.  In talking about the writing and recording of Zenga, he says past travels were influential.  The Smoky Mountains may or may not have been part of it, but the idea of travel and the natural world clearly was.

“I’m working on a new solo record right now that’s actually turning into a double album,” Martin said.  “Rahim Al Haj is playing on a couple songs and I’m working with a lot of jazz musicians.  Some of them are old friends of mine and some of them are new people that I’m working with.  I’m noticing that as the songs are coming to me and as we’re recording them, they’re coming from all over the world as far as influences go and it’s just because of those past travels and those experiences that just sort of build up in your being and then they come out as this form of expression.”

I’ve listened to Zenga many, many times but primarily while sitting at a desk, staring at a computer.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  The music is evocative even in a mundane atmosphere.  Driving up and down mountains and looking over cliffs as the rain pattered and battered my windshield seemed to bring something more out of the music.  I was no longer just listening to music or driving.  It became an experience in three vivid dimensions.

Don’t believe me?  Get a copy of Zenga and take it out on the road with you.

Filed under: Tags: Barrett Martin, Zenga