Alongside America’s dusty western highways, wooden churches call out to all the road’s travelers. The driver of a slow moving Cadillac passes each chapel without stopping. He’s sinned too many time to go inside, but he flips through the AM dial until he finds Cotton Jones bellowing sweetness straight from the pulpit.
"Come on baby, let the river roll on" Michael Nau sings on "Somehow To Keep it Going" off the group’s latest release, Tall Hours in the Glowstream. A low tom rumbles out a simple, steady beat, offset by the high jangles of a tambourine. Over the verses a delicate guitar and quavering organ accompany Nau’s fragile voice. Gathering strength at the chorus, his voice rises heavenward to float with the reverberating electric and acoustic washes of sound. As the hymn nears the end, Nau beckons to the congregation and a ghostly choir rises from the pews to echo his words.
The driver hums softly with the song as he drives towards the horizon. It isn’t any closer than when he started, but this rolling chapel has given him a glimpse of redemption along the way.