Small Town City
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I am a first generation out of the woods child of Appalachia, but I grew up in the small cities and suburbs of Washington D.C.. When I was a child and we visited my mother's childhood home, it was like something out of a movie or dream. We would only be able to drive part of the way up the mountain, but the rest we walked on foot.
As we approached the house, it had a sort of vintage eeriness to it. Made of all wood and built by the hands of folk from a more simpler time, the house had no electricity or running water. There was also a dreaded outhouse outside for using the restroom that was often full of spiders!
I always enjoyed my visits back home where my family is from in the mountains of Southwestern Virginia. There is a little tiny town there called Clintwwod, and the people there just fascinated me. They spoke in the most curious accent, and everybody we passed on the way into those mountains waved at us like they knew us! There was a beautiful and welcoming vibe that was addictive to me as a child.
After all, I wasn't allowed to smoke corn silk from a pipe or shoot a shotgun in my back yard at home. When we would visit my mom’s sister I would get to do all of these things with my cousin Stuart, and even stay out in the woods overnight in a cabin he and his friends built. When it was time to go back home I would often protest to stay a couple of weeks, and then come back home on a Trailways bus.
The pace of that small town was so much more inviting than my own town. The people there who lived in them hollers loved to tell stories and just sit for hours on the porch passing the time. They were kinder and seemingly more gentle than the folks in my town. Don't get me wrong, I still loved my hometown and the people of it, but there was something more tight knit and special about those towns in Appalachia. It haunts my memories to this very day.
Of course, as all cities do, mine just kept growing. After all, this is the seat of Babylon, a playful name I have given our nation's capital because it is the seat of the government, the rich, and the powerful. With time my little city became busier and louder, as the greater city spread out and consumed us. It is not as welcoming as it once was and now is heavily congested with traffic, crime ridden, and loud with constant construction.
The night that the inspiration filled my soul to write Small Town City was a typical night around here. The atmosphere was loud with the sound of sirens and cars. People were scurrying about back and forth in the hustle and bustle of metro life, seemingly stuck in an endless loop. I was longing for quiet, but the noise pressed into my dreams as I lay sleeping in my bed.
I was suddenly startled by the sound of gunshots that sounded all too close, and as it awakened me, my heart was racing. This was a sound that was becoming all too common around here, and it was unnerving. There in the noisy dark I layed wide awake dreaming of small town life. What if this city were to move and breathe in the same way as the town I visited as a child? It was just then that the inspiration hit me that would drive me to write the song. After all, I was already well into my first recording project that later became my first album. That album was titled Spaceship Ride, and I released it independently in 2005.
I have attached the song to this post because it has largely laid hidden over the years. I won a few awards for the song, so the life of it has been good to me. As I stand here at the threshold of creativity and a host of new projects including music, I would love to share this song with you. It is a snapshot of my soul on a loud and restless night, in a city that never sleeps.
Small Town City
by Matthew Buchanan
Available on the album Spaceship Ride and in all outlets.
