One Road/Many Views

March, 2018 saw Peter travel to Raleigh, NC to begin his coverage of 2,360 miles of US 1 from Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida.  His first step was to begin to cut the project down to a manageable size.  The second step was to get his feet under him to establish a process of taking pictures, exploring the Route, and trying to get interviews from every nutbag in town.  His car has 175,000 miles on it, now. His hard drive holds 20,000 files. Refusing to say “done” on this passion project, he looks forward to more research, pruning fearlessly, and writing more songs.

Lessons in Potato Farming

Maine used to harvest more potatoes than anywhere else. Today, they still pull them out of the ground in October in amazing numbers. Big hopper trucks run up Route 1 in Aroostook County. It impressed Peter so much, he interviewed farmers about the process and wrote a song behind his experience. Vanessa Silberman co-wrote and produced the track. Much of it was recorded on the road in Columbia, South Carolina.

Characters are everywhere on Route 1. Finding them really isn’t hard. Getting them to talk to you is often easy, too. Here’s a prime example from South Hill, VA.

RE

Renovate, Rescue, Repurpose, Resilience, Restore, Recycle, Rehabilitate, Recover, Respect, Reuse, Revitalize, Rebirth.-  As I-95 stole away automobile traffic from Route 1, the commercial viability of some sections declined.  This is a frequently-told story on Route 66 (e.g. “Car Story” - film).  Some individual businesses and several of those abandoned towns have survived in surprising ways.  Some have hung on stubbornly, despite overwhelming odds, or because of a special industry or geographic feature.  Some have been repurposed.  Some have vanished - swallowed by kudzu and succumbed to gravity and weather…

One of the most compelling things about US 1 is how many times it has changed and how many ways it has been bypassed.  The old 2-lane road that was established by the states in 1926 has been widened to multi-lane suburban boulevards, usurped by new limited access highways, or bypassed by the Interstate.  Some old towns were leveled in the name of progress.  Other town centers were left to struggle with the resulting economic dislocation.  Some, like  Franklinville Historic District haven't recovered.  Others have.  

RE also embraces human activity like recovery from addiction, animal rescue, spiritual re-birth, rehabilitation from physical ailments/trauma, automobile restoration, and natural resource restoration/conservation. If you have a RE story to share or suggest, click below.

Recording on the Road with Drew

Drew Nugent and I have written a lot of music together. He has a fabulous style and enormous talent. I first sang “Second Hand Man” with Bob Ziesing & the Orpheus Club in my twenties. Drew agreed to record it near Route 1 in Boston at Mad Oak Studios.