American singer songwriter Doug Levitt has spent over twelve years travelling across the USA on Greyhound busses amassing over 120,000 miles of songwriting inspiration. His twelve track album ‘Edge of Everywhere’ covers the stories of travellers met along the way as well as his own personal journey.
Perhaps it was suffering tragedy as a young person which made Levitt so receptive to other people’s stories. When he was 16, he found his father dead by suicide. For years, he says, he couldn’t cry and turned to music as an outlet. But before using that music to reflect the journeys of others, he set out on his own, first at Cornell, where he studied Critical Thinking with Carl Sagan, and then as a London-based foreign correspondent for CNN and ABC filing dispatches from such places as Iran, Rwanda, Bosnia and Gaza. “At some point, in the midst of a breakdown, I realised if I didn’t commit fully to music now, I wasn’t going to do it. And I was afraid that if I didn’t, if I didn’t follow my instincts, that I would end up suffering a familiar fate.”
He followed those instincts to Music City, USA. Not long after moving to Nashville, Levitt set out on his first Greyhound bus tour, with nothing but an initial six-week bus pass, a Gibson J-100, a copy of Woody Guthrie’s ‘Bound For Glory’, a country to cross and an American story to tell — one about life from the margins in.
The album produced by multiple Grammy Award-winner Trina Shoemaker, the producer/engineer behind albums by Brandi Carlile, Josh Ritter, Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris starts strong with ‘Cold Comfort’ and ‘Edge of Everywhere’, a song about defiance in the face of struggle. Inspired by an older woman by the name of Brenda who lost her job and home, it reflects on the metaphorical hills and valleys of LA.
‘LA River’ showcases an intimate, laid back sound musically with Levitt’s guitar and vocals only supplemented with a resonant organ before the introduction of a simple drum beat and gospel tinged backing vocals. ‘Buddy Gray’ tells the story of human loss and struggle where as ‘Turning Myself’ speaks of poor life choices; showcasing Levitt’s ability to cover various topics across the writing spectrum. However, sometimes it does feel like he is trying to squeeze every inch of a story out, perhaps losing some of the ability to create catchier hooks but it’s doubtful his aim with this release is to score a top three summer singalong number one.
Speaking on ‘Highway Signs’, Levitt says ‘it’s the central thematic bridge of the album, it’s about my own moving through these various landscapes over time and long distances. It’s also a song about self-reconciliation because 100,000 miles all merge into ourselves in this life on the run. We can’t outrun ourselves. And that’s also what’s at the heart of this record which is that these songs are meant to, if anything, be allegorical road signs marking the map of our emotions and our collective psyche because ultimately it is the connection that is happening in passing between people who you are very unlikely to see again. But there is a commonality of the human condition that reveals itself above the armrests and over the rumble of the wheels, between meal stops and truck stops, smoke breaks and transfers at three in the morning half-asleep. These are often slow reveals to a story.”
‘Born In West Virginia’ is a standout track on the album with Levitt describing a travellers desire to have a simple life however through serving in the army, selling their belongings and being ‘born in West Virginia but dying in West LA’ it embodies the fact that as humans we may and even should explore and discover life rather than sit still in the same place.
Greyhound bus is the cheapest means of travel in the US and largely serves the poorest in the community. Inspired by Depression-era projects like that of Woody Guthrie and conscious of the increasingly deep inequalities within the country, Levitt has travelled to every single state in the continental US by Greyhound, and through these songs, is giving voice to those on the margins who often go unheard. ‘Edge of Everywhere’ is an interesting and thoughtful record; simplistic musically but with the focus being on the lyrics and stories, it is an album worth sitting down to take in.
Track Listing: 1. Cold Comfort 2. Edge of Everywhere 3. L.A. River 4. 40 West 5. They Killed Buddy Gray 6. Born in West Virginia 7. Run It All Back 8. Disaster Can Wait 9. Turning Myself In 10. Back in Okemah 11. Highway Signs 12. Two-Week Warrior Record Label: Signify Release Date: 3rd March Buy ‘Edge of Everywhere’ right now
