Blue Highways Digital Program

Digital Program

Original Music inspired by William Least Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways

The Bushwick Book Club Seattle
presents
Original Music Inspired by
William Least Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways
June 3, 2023
at Town Hall Seattle

Hosted by Emily Persha & Wes Weddell

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Featuring Musical & Spoken Word Performances from
(Click name for primary link, * = first Bushwick appearance, ^ = lyrics included below)
Rights to all song lyrics ©/℗ the individual artists, reprinted here with permission

Del Rey^
YouTube Fun Video

Aaron Starkey
Instagram 1 Instagram 2

Daniel Tam-Claiborne*
Facebook Instagram

LaVon Hardison^
Facebook Instagram Bushwick Feature

Sheryl Wiser^
Instagram YouTube Soundcloud

Reggie Garrett & Christine Gunn*
Reggie: Facebook Twitter YouTube

Shaudi Bianca Vahdat^
Facebook Instagram YouTube Bandcamp Spotify

Chris Poage
Facebook Instagram Bandcamp

Plus the Bushwick Quiz, and more!

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Connect with Bushwick
Website Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube Bandcamp #bushwickbookclub

2022-2023 “Full-Spectrum” Mainstage Season at Town Hall Seattle & Hugo House

Original Music Inspired by William Least Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways

PERFORMER-PROVIDED LYRICS
Rights to all song lyrics ©/℗ the individual artists, reprinted here—exactly as submitted—with permission

Del Rey

Butterfly kite, no strings no flight

sail over bent and narrow roads things pinched shut /things squeezed closed

wait to become something lighter

–

travel the bent and narrow roads back of beyond without a thrill. Where are you from? Why are you still here?

on empty with a heavy load,

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back of beyond without a thrill

tires roll and whine and so do you can’t take anymore/feels so true

you’ll stop caring if you just stay still

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tires roll and whine and so do you Road before under and behind

drink the water comes up of its own mind

Road is you sign posts are few

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Butterfly kite, no strings no flight sail over bent and narrow roads things pinched shut /things squeezed closed

wait to become something lighter

–

LaVon Hardison
Ghost Dancing

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Goodbye was a fire in the house

And I jumped and fell through a broken window

Had no one to blame but myself

It’s just my heart, it feels a little bit tender

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Chorus:

I’m runnin’ ‘cross this land, so tough so broken

And the highway is the cradle for my soul

And the wheels they’ll take you to the truth or they’ll leave you in the dark

I’m looking for that grail, you see, if you see a ghost that looks like me,

Just feed him well and send him on his way

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Somethin’ ’bout a friend who knows your name

Who can wake you from your death, to face another day

And building walls of rock feels like a rest

I guess I need those stories and old friends

Sheryl Wiser
Birdcage

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North by northwest

early afternoon

On this old blue highway

With nothing left to lose

He was standing at the roadside

thumb in the wind

He was standing at the roadside

Waiting to begin

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How far are you going?

It doesn’t matter to me.

Have you considered Jesus

–

And the Lord’s strategy

Have you thought about salvation

offered up your soul

Are you a traveler looking

For heaven’s rewards? End on the C

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CHORUS

I’m a man of faith

You may not agree

my life is a story

I’m learning how to read

We are all the sons and daughters

Of travelers across this land

We are all the sons and daughters

rooted where we stand

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There’s nothing in my pockets

I’m a man without a home

I parted with my possessions

But Jesus keeps me whole

I’m on the road from sorrow

From the wreck of another life

From the snowy banks

From a slippery road

I let go and saw the light

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Now I give my life to saving

those I’ve never met

I spread the word and trust the Lord

And believe in Heaven sent

I talk to the highways

I talk to the fields and clouds

I’ll tell them all to come inside

Where the word lives out loud

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Shaudi Bianca Vahdat
Where I’ve Been

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In Brooklyn Bridge, Kentucky

The Hammonds have a dream

They’re building up a boat and they hope that it floats

Some April when the red buds bloom they’ll sail downstream

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I’ll stop awhile in Nameless

There used to be a store

But they paved the road up years ago

And it’s not there anymore

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Where I’ve been

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At Barbara’s place in Martinville

She reads Catch 22

Tells me, “make the people bored with hating instead of helping

That’s what it boils down to”

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Sundown taking color from the land

The Eldorado heat

I meet a man whose life fits in a paper bag

And I see his life’s complete

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Where I’ve been

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Think I’ve come full circle

The map tells me I’m done

With one last curve of highway

I drive into the sun

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Where I’ve been