I am not sure how many people would argue with me when I say that the I-40 corridor, when passing through Arkansas, is a very meh stretch of road.
This past week was fall break for Union, so, like many others, I headed home for the long weekend. Perhaps unlike many others, heading home for me meant driving 10-plus hours back to Texas, a journey that brought me to search for the perfect music to escape from the monotony of that accursed I-40 corridor.
In 2010, the band The Head And The Heart released their eponymous album, which contained the song “Rivers and Roads.” They didn’t know it at the time, but they had just released what would become my unofficial anthem for driving back home.
Shockingly, the song discusses rivers and roads throughout its play time, and while that may be extremely topical, especially for a long drive during which I see many roads and cross many rivers, I will be going a different way when talking about this song.
College is a uniquely transitory period in life. For four years, or for some, five, or six, or three, you live a strange, in-between existence of what I have often called the crossroads of freedom and responsibility. I myself am now in the swan song of my college life, which is as dramatic an utterance as I dare to make without falling to melodrama, though I may eat my words in a moment as I explore just how dramatic I can get.
I found “Rivers and Roads” many years ago, and I have always enjoyed the aesthetic qualities of the song; its anthemic tendency, the emotional delivery of some choice lyrics that never fails to make me want to sing along and the repetitive second half of the song that hearkens back to the era from which the song arose. But now more than ever, I can feel the song in my bones.
If you have yet to listen to the song, I would encourage you to do so now, so that the rest of this piece may resonate a bit clearer for you. “Rivers and Roads” is a counterpoint duet, and in the first half of the song, the guy singing talks about how in a year’s time all of his friends will move away. This is true in my life as well. Similar to the song’s other lyrics, I can relate. My family does live in another state. I miss my girlfriend’s face. My friends will all move away, and after that I am not positive about any single thing that may happen.
With every stage of life, there is the chance to look back at our last chapter and analyze with greater accuracy than was possible at the time the events and decisions we and those around us made. Something about “Rivers and Roads” never fails to draw up memories of times past, both recent and distant.
Maybe that is due to the fact that I have been listening to the song for a decade now, or maybe it really has that quality that a musical piece can get that almost transcends any description and just does something because it does. Whatever the reason, “Rivers and Roads” has become my own go-to theme for any long road trip, which themselves bring on an introspective attitude for their duration, at least for me. The song has also solidified itself in my mind as the premier song of the year for me, so topical as it is for my situation.
I can see how others may not fully relate, but I would say if you listen to “Rivers and Roads” a couple of times, and you bend to the will of the indie anthem, singing along at the top of your lungs, you just might be able to relate to that deeper idea that has no name: that fugitive concept that music can have, an experience that you feel in your soul and can let you understand something without ever having seen hide nor hoof of it.
