"Switching it over to AM
Searching for a truer sound
Can't recall the call letters
Steel guitar and settle down
Catching an all-night station somewhere in Louisiana
It sounds like 1963, but for now it sounds like heaven"
Probably my favorite six lines of lyrics of any song ever written. And I believe I know the inspiration for it.
Farrar and his wife were living in New Orleans at the time he wrote most of TRACE (her job brought them here). During that time he would frequent a guitar shop on Oak Street that I also used to check guitars out at. He traveled back and forth by car from New Orleans to St. Louis and back during that time. The above-lines in "Windfall" I'm pretty sure refer to 870 WWL-AM radio station that for a jillion years had an all-night truckers show that played country music from the late 50's and early 60s. It was all steel guitar and pre-Beatles country music - nothing even remotely resembling modern country was ever played. WWL-AM had incredible range and I know people in the mid-west could easily pick it up. Its a long drive from St. Louis to New Orleans and I've no doubt those lines in "Windfall" were inspired by late night drives to and fro listening to the all-night truckers show on 87- WWL-AM.
Very cool.
P.S. The more recent Son Volt song "Pushed Too far" also has some wonderful lyrics about Farrar's time living in New Orleans and checking out music at Rock N Bowl.
"Switching it over to AM Searching for a truer sound Can't recall the call letters Steel guitar and settle down Catching an all-night station somewhere in Louisiana It sounds like 1963, but for now it sounds like heaven"
Probably my favorite six lines of lyrics of any song ever written. And I believe I know the inspiration for it.
Farrar and his wife were living in New Orleans at the time he wrote most of TRACE (her job brought them here). During that time he would frequent a guitar shop on Oak Street that I also used to check guitars out at. He traveled back and forth by car from New Orleans to St. Louis and back during that time. The above-lines in "Windfall" I'm pretty sure refer to 870 WWL-AM radio station that for a jillion years had an all-night truckers show that played country music from the late 50's and early 60s. It was all steel guitar and pre-Beatles country music - nothing even remotely resembling modern country was ever played. WWL-AM had incredible range and I know people in the mid-west could easily pick it up. Its a long drive from St. Louis to New Orleans and I've no doubt those lines in "Windfall" were inspired by late night drives to and fro listening to the all-night truckers show on 87- WWL-AM.
Very cool.
P.S. The more recent Son Volt song "Pushed Too far" also has some wonderful lyrics about Farrar's time living in New Orleans and checking out music at Rock N Bowl.
@Rickvee thanks for the insight. Just saw them at First Avenue in Minneapolis last night. Great show. Of course they played this song.
@Rickvee thanks for the insight. Just saw them at First Avenue in Minneapolis last night. Great show. Of course they played this song.