5-19-11 - "Another New World" ~ Josh Ritter

I'm hitting the road, first good long trip in a while.  Pittsburgh to Vermont, solo, just me and the yellow lines and some great music (like the fresh albums I scored yesterday).  I'm quite ready for some time for introspection and reflection, so the drive time will be perfect.  Planned stops include Lake Placid - site of the Miracle On Ice, Magic Hat Brewery in Burlington, and probably Ben & Jerry's too.  


But you don't care about that, you care about the song.  This one's about a journey, so it's fitting for the day my trip kicks off.  Pretty potent lyrics; I'm quoting the beginning below to not spoil the later parts of the ballad.  It's haunting, both lyrically and musically... probably influenced by Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" (apparently the last poem he wrote...)  Here you go, some good ol' Josh Ritter:

"The leading lights of the age all wondered among themselves what I would do next,
After all that I'd found, in my circles around the world, was there anything left?
'Gentlemen,' I said, 'I've studied the maps, and if what I am thinking is right,
There's another new world, at the top of the world, for whoever can break through the ice,'

I looked 'round the room, in that way I once had, and I saw that they wanted belief,
So I said, 'All I've got are my guts and my God,' then I paused, 'and the Annabel Lee.'"