Destination: Solo roadtrip through Texas from Amarillo, TX to Brownsville, TX
Date: Whenever the time is right
This week, let’s all hop in the Groove Machine and hit the roads of Texas from the Panhandle and I-27 down to the Gulf coast and I-69E. For the drive, this machine is fueled by two sister EPs from Khruangbin and Leon Bridges, the aptly titled Texas Sun and Texas Moon.
It’s 3pm. Time to hit the road. Solo. This is no ordinary road trip though, this a twelve hour odyssey across one state only. From the semi-desert northern top of Texas to the Gulf coast and southern valley bottom, this journey will traverse bright daylight and deep deep night. Sweet slumber awaits at the end, but you are up against time which only passes as fast as the clock goes.
As the rubber meets the road, the physical trip begins but the soul also prepares for a time to look inward. Its own journey also waiting up the road. Departing Amarillo, past the last vestiges of the canyon and anything resembling the New Mexico badlands, “Texas Sun” plays. Your mind is at peace: happy, bright, hopeful, and ready to take on this half-day drive. You’ve got your road snacks, something to drink, and the perfect audio companion. You’re all alone, but it feels like Leon and Khruangbin are buckled up beside you and in the back seat. The twangy steel guitar helping you fall in love with the feeling of freedom as you fly down the highway past cotton fields and tiny towns that you could miss if you weren’t paying attention. As you stretch your road legs and dig into the gummy worms a bit, you take in the views as you pass an early 1900s dilapidated house that’s been abandoned for at least 60 years. The beauty in breakdown, sorrowful yet romantic. The songs “Midnight” and “C-Side” blowing you down the road with a funky, neo-soul push across the Llano Estacado, past Lubbock, and into the never ending red dirt of West Texas. Now you are coasting and thinking, thinking about love past and present, life, longings, dreams. Happy thoughts. Now further up the line, the sun is beginning to get closer to the horizon in your rearview mirror, bright and blinding for its last brief moments. It is now that “Conversion” serves up gospel like a praise for the good work that the day has done and a prayer for the road. Good work, day.
But soon, some earlier thoughts become focus and those thoughts begin to get extra attention. The world is dark, headlights and neon now giving the sun a rest. No longer able to distract yourself with the roadside sights, your only passenger is your thoughts. Thoughts of a love lost creep in as “Doris” recounts the heartache of losing the love of your life. Other thoughts like losing a parent or the passing of your best friend piggybacking on each other. Sometimes it’s the saudade that gets you, the sadness you feel for the happy memories knowing they have passed. It is now that “B-Side” picks up the tempo in an attempt to shake you out of dwelling on the negatives. The stars of south central Texas, so plentiful in between cities, a reminder how incredible life is. You’re getting close to San Antonio. Your thoughts shifting from sorrow and darkness to deeply pensive, lost in thought and chewing on each one like a gumball. “Chocolate Hills” brings back hope and love in stripped down psychedelic soul real time as the first traces of coastal lakes begin to show up. This journey is down to its final pair of hours. “Father, Father” continues the conversation that was started by “Conversion” as you talk life through with your Higher Power, ironing out the last wrinkles from those earlier lingering thoughts. Rolling down the interstate, salt in the air, you’ve come full circle with your troubles. This cruise, a cycle now returning to hope and understanding after much introspection. In the final miles as you head into Brownsville, “Mariella”, slinky and seductive, snaps you completely out of your own head. As you arrive to the hotel parking lot, you are hopeful and clear of mind, resolution in hand. Not only have you made it to your destination, you have arrived.
Khruangbin and Leon Bridges released these two EPs two years apart in 2020 and 2022, but they represent two halves of a story arc. “Texas Sun” is all about that warm, daytime road trip vibe, while “Texas Moon” is the chill, thought-provoking ride through the night. The artists even see them as two sides of the same coin – good times and bright days matched with some introspection and shadows, and that’s exactly how they sound when you listen to them together.
Fun Fact: it is a closer drive from El Paso, TX to San Diego, CA (724 miles) than it is from Amarillo, TX to Brownsville, TX (785 miles).
HIGHLIGHTS
Texas Sun: sexy desert groove, chill and warm, velvet crooning and twangy grooves
Conversion: minimalist slow jam gospel song, literal come to Jesus moment, “At The Cross” embedded within
Doris: death-bed account of losing the love of your life told from Leon Bridge’s father’s perspective, heartbreaking, simplicity of the instruments allows the story to be told without infringing
B-Side: picks up the tempo, funky groove, literally about finding a B-Side for the record
Mariella: perfect closer, slinky slow burn, puts the Do Not Disturb sign on the door for you while you drift off
“Say you wanna hit the highway while the engine roars Well, come on, roll with me ’til the sun goes down Texas sun”
-“Texas Sun”, Khruangbin & Leon Bridges (2020)
Pairs well with:
Cactus, speed traps, Whataburger, Dairy Queen, Buc-ee’s, pumpjacks, tumbleweeds, the Alamo, salty air, a head full of thoughts, and time to burn
Groove Rituals 