Listen to “Make Space 38” on Spotify
And tell a friend!
We spent a good chunk of time in Wyoming this summer. The days were long and loose. We biked up Teton Pass and rode horses on M’s ranch and swam in Holly Lake under towering slabs of granite and ice. We ate tacos and drank sloshies. The girls had soft serve every afternoon. There were moose and bald eagles, ospreys, a three-legged fox, a brown bear who took a dip in Jenny Lake 200 yards down shore from our own swimming hole. There were picnic tables. There was dust and heat. Sweatshirt mornings. Afternoon thunderstorms. Everywhere you looked, there was summer.
There was also a lot of driving. Wyoming is vast and open. Plains and mountains. John Wayne and Ye. The West. For whatever reason, I preferred listening to the radio over Spotify or Soundcloud when we were in the car. Maybe I was feeling a bit blah about my regular music diet. Maybe it was just because Wyoming Public Radio kicks ass. The programming leans country and bluegrass—Americana—but I also caught tracks by Rufus Wainwright and King Sunny Ade and Candido. One Saturday morning, we listened to the Ranch Breakfast Show while driving to Jackson Lake, the spruce and fir and aspen giving way to Mount Moran, Teewinot, the Grand. The DJ played The Bluegrass Album Band, Crooked Still, Nick Drake, John Fahey. There was something biblical about the whole thing. People talk about wilderness as church. The metaphor lands.
So here’s an ode to Wyoming. Here’s an ode to swimming in frigid alpine lakes. Here’s an ode to the long drive home on a rural two-lane highway, Allman Brothers’ “Jessica” on the radio. The right song. The perfect song. The only song. Summer—you look and then it’s gone.
Thanks for listening.
Your bud,
Ross
Art @ Adam Golfer
I was just thinking about guitars this morning. Perfect timing Ross 🤓
Do you think it’s possible to learn how to play like this as an adult? I love it so much.