Car trips and country music are synonymous to me. Country has been an integral component of almost every extended drive I’ve taken. My old man, a genuine king of the road, would blast Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and George Jones songs on the radio when I was a toddler.
A looped stream of Morgan Wallen’s new 36-track album One Thing at a Time provided the soundtrack for my drive from Kentucky to Kansas this week. At nearly two hours, it’s ideal for the long haul.
The metropolitan sprawl of St. Louis excepted, the majority of my drive passed through the idyllic back-country Wallen croons about. A significant portion of his new batch of songs address substance abuse and loss, subjects necessitating unrestrained singalongs.
Even the songs referencing Waylon Jennings, The Marshall Tucker Band, Gary Stewart and Keith Whitley possess the slick sheen of radio rock acts like Shinedown. The bright production cuts through the loud hum of the road. I’m almost looking forward to the grueling drive to Denver this summer.