March 5 - Going To Georgia

The first thing that strikes me about this mix of spoken word and soaring vocals is that this might be the strongest that John's voice has sounded so far. In this song of love and isolation and the continual background fear of potential violence we hear a voice that is pushing forward through the years.

In a way this is a simple young love song, and certainly the parts that are the real totems in this song are pure and simple and resonate strongly. My heart pumping blood remembers times when she was standing in the doorway and it was her. The darkness is hidden but always present but less important than the light.

But it's really the instrumentation that makes this one of the earliest purely anthemic songs in the Mountain Goats catalogue. The kind of complex simplicity that would become the essence of later sings and absence shows its power here. It's no wonder to me that this is a perennial favourite of Mountain Goats fans, as they have good taste.

See you all at the Macon county line.