Interstate Highway 10 is the southernmost cross-country highway in the United States and runs in nearly a straight line for a mind-numbing 2,460.34 miles. Anyone who has traveled on this road can attest to a strange, almost perverse sense of despair and disease that seems to slowly drape itself over one’s vehicle after a couple of hours.
It’s with this in mind that Guma presents “Highway 10 Blues,” a song which needs no further explanation than its own title. Surrounded by the trappings of a life spent on the highway— guns, gears, and more than a little gasoline— writer T.J. Masters makes an offering to the pantheon of great outlaw country road songs, passing through New Orleans, San Antonio, and Phoenix, among others.
Cut in Austin, TX and featuring a scorching lead guitar feature by Cat Clemons III and a harmony vocal by Selena Rosanbalm, the group evokes the best of the psychedelic era of country, when Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris were backed up by none other than Elvis’s own guitar player, James Burton.
A road is a line, winding or straight; curved or true. Spend enough time on IH-10 and it might just start to resemble a hangman’s noose, yet to be tied. Drive safe out there.
