Many times have I turned to music to guide me through turbulent periods in my life. When my parents divorced nearly twenty years ago, I lit a solitary candle in my bedroom and listened to the Beatles’ Abbey Road. When nearing graduation from James Madison University and bound for adulthood in 1999, the penultimate year of the millennium, I played (over and over again) Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, repeating in my car stereo “Like a Rolling Stone” more than any other track. When my brother-in-law was dying of cancer several years back, I sought solace in Wilco and Billy Bragg’s Mermaid Avenue, particularly their rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “Mountain Bed.” Now, I reminisce here to pay homage to the tunes that have guided me throughout life and to mention that Townes Van Zandt has healed my latest wounds like all those elixicating songwriters whom I have sought before.
