I’ve always enjoyed being on the road. I travel around Western Canada a lot, and often wonder why people are so eager to explore far-flung locales when there is a lifetime worth of beauty, wonder, and majesty right here at home. And I’ve only explored the western half of this huge country!
It’s no surprise I have a lot of songs about the road. I’m sure I could do an entire road song set, and maybe I will! The first song I ever learned was Jerry Jeff Walker’s Stoney, and it’s about as road songy a song as a song gets. And now here I am putting finishing touches on a new song called Burning Road, about that soaring feeling of freedom that you get in huge, wide-open spaces, and sharing it all with someone special.
“Time don’t matter anymore. Space is what we came here for.” It’s great to lose yourself in the wonder and majesty of a starry night. This song started out one night as I was playing a simple little rhythm on the guitar and images of riding a motorcycle into a desert sunset came to me, with all those rich colours, scents and sights. I just kept following that burning desert road until it became a song. There’s mountains, and lakes, and stars and beautiful skies, come explore, it’s a wonderful journey!
Right now I’m working in my little home studio, recording a demo version of Burning Road as a guide for when I go into a real studio to record it. I’m also sending it off to some music publishers, hoping it will find its own road to success that way. I’m thinking about doing the Bob Dylan trick of making my demo sound so bad that it gets other artists to record it because they can do a way better job than that!
Initially I’ll be releasing Burning Road exclusively to people on my mailing list as a thank-you to all you wonderful and supportive fans. (Tip: that annoying pop-up thing on my website? It lets you sign up for my mailing list. Or go here.) It’ll be a little while before it comes out – the song is fresh, it needs wood-shedding to find its true form, so watch for it in my shows. I’ll be wood-shedding on stage! That said, my goal is a summer release. Stay tuned! There will be email announcements.
Thanks everyone, keep your front wheels pointed at the sun!
John
PS: I want to thank musician Tim Redford for inspiring me to share my process behind this song, and for convincing me that people will be interested in the “behind the scenes” stuff. More to come.