After the roads came to West Virginia
The world-premiere of the music video for "A Soul Can't Rest In Peace Beside the Four Lane" | feb18.2022
Editor’s Note Thingie
WestVirginiaVille has been on sabbatical so far in 2022, except for documenting the frustrations of Life on (Joe) Manchin Island, plus noting the very special time Thich Nhat Hanh led a not-so-silent retreat in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle. But we’re getting our game back on with a song — by one of the state’s finest singer-songwriters, produced by one of the state’s finest singer-songwriters. If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, free subscribe by tapping the button below or go to WestVirginiaVille.substack.com. Read, watch, and listen onward. And be well. | Douglas John Imbrogno, editor, WestVirginiaVille.com
A Road Runs Through It
CLICK TO WATCH MUSIC VIDEO | DIRECT YOUTUBE LINK | An AMP Media Production
A song-circle encounter above an Indian restaurant in West Virginia’s capital city in 2018 will bear harmonic fruit with the March 25, 2022 national release of a CD of stellar tunes by singer-songwriter Chris Haddox. But above is an advance peak.
The leader of the “Mountain Stage” band, Ron Sowell, was in the audience that night and buttonholed the Logan County-born songwriter after hearing his evocative, story-rich lyricism. They went on to collaborate on a CD of original tunes by Haddox, who is by day a West Virginia University professor, but with deep chops on stage as a writer and performer.
Among the singles released in advance of the CD release is his resonant tune “A Soul Can’t Rest In Peace Beside the Four Lane.” The song paints an historic and contemporary portrait of the West Virginia hills, where life and death, birth and funerals, once unfolded quietly in small, tucked-away communities. The coming of highways and busy byways interrupted so much of that traditional life. The song captures the bittersweet change while harkening to a time lost, now, to memory and old photographs.
Sowell asked AMP Media, the multimedia production house that creates WestVirginiaVille’s documentary and music video work, about creating a video of a tune that is both a standalone piece of high craft and a snapshot of Appalachian social history. The music video was shot by Bobby Lee Messer and co-produced by him and Douglas John Imbrogno, who interviewed Chris via e-mail about his songcraft and his life.
Q-and-A Excerpt: After the roads came …
Colorized screen shot from AMPMedia video of “A Soul Can’t Rest In Peace Beside the Four Lane”
WESTVIRGINIAVILLE: What was the initial ‘a-ha’ inspiration for “A Soul Can’t Rest in Peace Beside the Four Lane”? There seem almost two worlds in a rural state like West Virginia: the fading, old country life and the incursion of 18-wheelers barreling and downshifting through the hills with fast-food chain joints sprouting at every exit.
CHRIS HADDOX: You nailed it. I tell people — and it’s true — that the genesis of that song was a 16-year-old riding on a new-cut road through the center of WV and taking note of the changes to the landscape. I felt bad about the big cuts in the mountains and the pain being inflicted on the natural world, if you will. Later, the social impacts of four lane-informed development began to sink in. It literally took me decades for that song to fully form in my mind. I’ve had people at shows just sit there and sob at that song — an indication that the theme is one that resonates deeply with some people.
CLICK TO READ FULL INTERVIEW: Q-AND-A with Chris Haddox
Rocket Boys and ZOOM Readings
I’ll be following Homer Hickam to the mic at the "Writers Can Read" event, 7 p.m., MONDAY, FEB 21, at Huntington's Heritage Station. Homer will ZOOM into the event; I’ll be live in person at Heritage Station and also viewable on ZOOM. In the spirit of his acclaimed “Rocket Boys,” (made into the movie “October Sky”), I will read a pertinent chapter from my “sorta memoir” in progress, about the night Neil and Buzz took a lunar stroll as Michael transited the dark side of the moon — to the fascination of a rocket boy high on sci-fi in the Ohio hills. An epic thing happened that night not often mentioned.
ZOOM LINK FOR 7 pm FEB. 21 “Writer’s Can Read” Event
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