The Loneliness of the Interstate

Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer are frequent collaborators.  When “Music for Two” came out, the sound of the album hearkened back to the first time I discovered the austere beauty of their music.  It was “Uncommon Ritual,” which opens with unaccompanied, descending banjo chords, followed by a solo cello melody that meanders for a while before establishing a cadence and complementary line to the banjo.  It’s still such a memorable opening, and the sounds Fleck and Meyer create together are distinct from my entire CD collection.

Fleck’s music seemed a perfect soundtrack for the beginning of a roadtrip.  My then-boyfriend at the time and I were driving from Ohio to New Hampshire on I-90 across Pennsylvania and upstate New York.  “Uncommon Ritual” marked the beginning of our trip, Cleveland disappearing behind us and a 9 hour stretch of hilly farmland ahead of us.  I like to think the whole album was recorded in one of the barns that sit next to the highway; it has an airy and pastoral quality which at times is also very lonely.  And even with another person in the car with you, there’s something about being on the same highway for a whole day that makes one feel cut off from the world.

I had borrowed a friend’s CD collection for the ride and this was, quite randomly, the first album I picked for our long trip.  I started gushing about it to my boyfriend, who subdued some excitement himself.  It turned out he had already purchased the album for me for Christmas without knowing if I would like it or not.  He scored big points for that pick, and still likes to point out how relieved he was when I randomly put this CD on during that car ride.  

Now any Bela Fleck/Edgar Meyer album will remind me of the chills I got listening to their first collaboration.  This one returns to that original sound that I first fell in love with.