CHAPTER 3

JUNCTION CITY, OHIO: SILENT CITY

Chapter three is an exploration of silence through the lenses of family and place. I talk about my father’s hometown, Junction City, Ohio, and share my earliest memories from there. I also write about death and birth, listening to photographs, the loss of memory, and how family can connect us to the land. Finally, I provide insights into the album Silent City (2009), which brings together samples from Berea and my memories of Junction City to create a mythological town.

Images

Videos and Lyrics

“Sleeping in the Driveway” features the singing of Bonnie “Prince” Billy (Will Oldham). It follows my father as he revisits his hometown, Junction City. The lyrics, co-written with Oldham, tell a story of a woman or a girl who is asleep in the driveway, with the faint sounds of radio coming from the car:

LYRICS

I see her sleeping in the driveway
while the night is
and lights are
passing by
windows unclear from
the trouble in her
breath
windows closed

I hear farm radio
from the inside
as the battery dies

I see her sleeping in the driveway
and as I did approach
headlights rush past me
and so silly I crouch to hide

When in a low whisper I heard
I see her sleeping in the driveway
Mama’s car
when in a low whisper
I heard

How sweetly I sleep in here
I heard how sweetly I sleep in here
and I be still
to hear still more

“Some Glad Day” also features Bonnie “Prince” Billy on vocals and as a co-writer of the lyrics. It was filmed in Mt. Venon and Columbus, Ohio, and Whitesburg, Kentucky. The music begins with accordions gently setting the tone and mood, as they have throughout the entire album. Vibraphone, electric piano, and a bass line on an upright piano join in. The instruments feel as if they are suspended in air, never quite resolving; instead, they are free of one another, and independent melodies float between them. Slowly, a lilting melody from the electric piano takes over, alongside a single repeated note on the vibraphone. The lyrics talk of a brick plant, a prison, an apple orchard, and taking comfort in letting our anxious fears go:

LYRICS

mud mill
tobacco in the grass
some glad day we’ll all arrive
this sweet comfort
is had, even here
I bid my anxious fears subside
and they will, until

brick-making prison
tobacco in the grass
some glad day we’ll all arrive
this sweet comfort
is had, even here
I bid my anxious fears subside
and they will, until

apple orchard
tobacco in the grass
some glad day we’ll see we all arrived
this sweet comfort
would be had even here
I bid my anxious fears subside
and they will