I post this song on Amy Farris’s birthday every year … but I’ve never told you why. It was the summer of 2009 and we were barreling across the salt flats of Utah from one leg of the Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women tour to the next, just Amy and me. Dave and the rest of the ladies had flown home to their respective cities to get some much-deserved rest and it was my job to move the van and the gear from one region to the next while the band got a temporary taste of home life. Amy didn’t like to go home during these breaks. She didn’t feel safe. She asked if she could come with me and I was more than pleased to have her engaging company. It was during these drives I learned everything about her; her life, her depression, the darkness that came over her at times but mostly we laughed. We drove fast and listened to Thin Lizzy, pulled over at kitschy roadside attractions and, because no one was looking, smoked cigarettes. Sleep deprived and fantastically caffeinated, Amy rolled down the window of the van, hung her tiny body halfway out, and yelled her favorite ridiculous Phil Lynott lyric at women in cars that we passed. “Hey you, good lookin’ female, c’mere!” I was howling at the sight of this. I cannot remember laughing so hard in my life. Still in hysterics and trying to catch her breath, she plopped herself in her seat and asked me: “What would you do without me?’ I don’t know, I said. The van fell quiet until this song came through the speakers. Happy birthday, sweetheart. We miss you out here. xx
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 04:26:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015