As we’ve been saying, on Saturday night the Long Beds played on the International stage (thanks, George!):
The view from inside the venue:
There were some sweet red tractors there as well. And I signed a lot of these.
The event was in support of these folks.
Sometimes people ask me if the books and the music are connected. Sometimes, yep. Amble Down Records compiled the following summary describing the connections from the Tiny Pilot album:
- The opening verse of “Edge of Town” is set on the highway overpasses described on pages 99-104 of Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time (HarperPerennial).
- The album’s title song, “Tiny Pilot,” was written in memory of Perry’s nephew Jake, as described in Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting (released in paperback as Coop: A Family, A Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg).
- “If They Give You Wings” is a song drawn directly from scenes in “Branding God,” the essay found on page 256 of Perry’s book, Off Main Street (HarperPerennial). The song lyrics also include a Dylan Thomas sample.
- “Harry Was Right” (bonus song available on physical CD version of album only as track #14) is a song set in a real-life bar called The Joynt. Perry’s readers will recognize the bar and its denizens from Chapter 13 of Truck: A Love Story (HarperPerennial) and may especially enjoy singing along with the bridge, which is a direct quote from the book: No…light…beer!
- Perry wrote the first verse of “Indiana” while driving from Michigan to Illinois on his Coop hardcover tour. The song makes specific reference to “Seven A.M.,” the Edward Hopper painting that anchors Chapter 8 (beginning on p. 138) of Truck: A Love Story (HarperPerennial).
- The lyrics of “Cissy Moan” invoke Oxford, Mississippi (home of Square Books) and the writers Larry Brown, Barry Hannah, and William Faulkner. The main character of the song is caught stealing books at “Lemuria” in reference to the actual bookstore in Jackson, Mississippi.
Another interview for the Coop paperback tour, although we got delightfully off-track and managed to discuss Truck and Population 485 and the music as well. I like this blog radio business. I can yap all around the country while staring at my actual (as opposed to virtual) chickens.
I recently rediscovered a note I wrote to someone about the fact that in both the book Truck and on the next Long Beds album, I mention “Seven A.M.”, a painting by Dennis Hopper.
Um.
That’d be Edward.
Wonder how many times I’ve done that.
Not that Dennis (currently very ill) can’t paint…
Music project continues. We gathered in my little office this week to record a few additional bits for the Long Beds album due out next March. Today I will try to get some (over)due writing done and stow the last of the pig fencing. I have been using the International around the farm a lot lately. Right now it’s loaded down with lumber and steel fence posts. It seems happy to have its springs flexed. Speaking of loaded Internationals:
As far as I know, that is not my truck, although I like to think it might have been her in a prior life.
from $8.99
from $13.50
from $13.50
