Alex Martin - Into the Desert

1. Into the Desert
The order of the songs on Appalachian Fall is quite intentional, moving from the poet’s internal world out to the community. “Into the Desert” is the only piece that is entirely spoken and reads as a kind of statement of purpose, and a reflection on the costs of his writing life. Trains run through the valley beneath my father’s mountain, as they run through much of his poetry, symbols of the connections and the labor taken up across generations of human history. I tried to reflect that in my guitar accompaniment. At the time I was working on pieces by the great Brazilian composer Guinga, whose music also explores the rhythms of trains that link Rio de Janeiro to its working-class suburbs.