Road Trip

03:35:08 - Contemporary Country

I was working on songs for a friend's album, Sammy Steele. We had written a bunch of songs between 07 and 09 for it all of which ended up with us drunk at the 24 hour Mexican food joint down the street from my ranch. One of the ideas we came up with was "Road Trip" about a guy who drives across country and all of the things he sees. I pulled out some paper and we just brainstormed this whole page of **** he would see, do, and eat. What do you eat on sporadic road trips? Slim Jims and Pork Rinds of course. Any red blooded American man knows this. We gave the guy a Washington start point since Sammy lived in Tacoma at the time and off he went. The two things that were going through my head were Forest Gump when he said... "I just felt like running" and the wonderful liberating terrifying freedom and faith of not really knowing where you are going. "I don't know where I'm going but the sun is shining." This later became life imitating art for me (as did Twentynine Palms I guess). At the time of writing this song I had also just come back from Omaha, Nebraska for a funeral of one of the best friends I ever had, my buddy Rhett. I stayed there in Omaha for a while and when I got to know Rhett and Linda’s friends I was shocked and stupefied at the level of insanity that Cornhuskers fans aspire to in their passion for their team. I learned the words "Go Big Red" there. I wanted to put a little of Nebraska into this song as a tribute to my friends. I ended up saving this song for my album in the end.

Trivia ~ Road Trip
The banjo played on this track is an '84 Gibson Earl Scruggs Signature model that somehow actually smelled like Earl Scruggs. Not sure how they engineered that feature into it. Pat and I kept smelling it during the session. Yes… Earl for sure. Unmistakable. Beautiful maple back and retro Gibson headstock. I can't play a lick on it but Pat drove it like an F-150.

John Gardner - Drums/Percussion
David Francis - Bass
Jeff Roach - Keyboards/Organ
Rob McNelley - Electric Guitars
Pat McGrath - Acoustic Guitar/Banjo
Steve Hinson - Steel Guitar
Chris Heers - Vocals/Background Vocals