Sometimes, when the world feels like it’s closing in and life doesn’t make sense, the best thing to do is take a road trip.
Just get in the car and drive, letting the scenery pass by, allowing thoughts, memories and reflections to flow freely. In Western Skies by singer and writer Darden Smith, he invites us on just such a trip through his home state of Texas, and treats us to a glimpse of his time on the road in prose. Western Skies is a companion book for Smith’s album of the same name and features Polaroids (taken with an old Polaroid from Smith’s garage and tossed in a box on the front seat of his car while driving), along with his original prose and lyrics from that album.
The pictures seem like glimpses of a time past, captured in sepia tones, and are haunting, dusty, and sometimes blurry-like the view out the window of a car. Collectively, they show us a different side of Texas: the wide-open skies, stands of oaks and yuccas, and long stretches of road dotted by radio towers, stucco houses, abandoned Quonset huts and diesel fuel pumps. They complement the descriptions, from the vast expanses of Texas highways: “The road rises steady from the Pecos Past the truck stop visions of Fort Stockton, The northern reaches of the Davis Mountains And the gatherings of Van Horn” (Sierra Blanca), to the uniqueness of its cities: “Juárez is the girl your instinct tells you to walk, no, run from But whose memory wakes you in the night” (Juarez) and the challenges of its climate. Anyone who has ever been in a monsoon will understand the warning in “Rain” when he starts out with “The smell of cloud catches the heart of the most jaded. For even they know the promise of what may follow” and contains the warning that “Torrents are longed for and dreaded in equal measure. Their quantity dreamed of, Speed and destruction often remembered too late as the flood runs wild over road and arroyo.”
Western Skies is an intimate and personal book.
Listening to Darden Smith’s album while reading it, one might wonder who caused the heartbreak and hope in his lyrics (and possibly sent him on his road trip) when he says, “Well I keep holding on even though it’s wrong ’Cause your memory makes me smile”(Perfect for a Little While) and “No matter how far you run, how fast you’ve sinned I’d forgive what you done, where you’ve been” (The High Road).
For those just finding Darden Smith, Western Skies is the opportunity to get to know this artist on a much deeper level than through only his songs. For fans who already have found Darden Smith, this companion book will be a joy to share his vision of Texas and get a more personal glimpse of this talented singer-songwriter/photographer and writer.
We definitely recommend listening to the accompanying music for this story. You can find that on Darden’s bandcamp here.
