Lyrics From The Heartland (2025) Book Review

Books of song lyrics can be as powerful and moving as the songs themselves, and sometimes in an even more personal way. The first such book I acquired (if memory serves me well) was Robert Hunter's A Box Of Rain. Songs I'd heard hundreds of times, songs I knew forward and backward and from any point in between suddenly took on fresh meaning for me, which I had not expected. I had simply thought it would be nice to have the book as part of my growing Grateful Dead collection, and was not thinking it would change the way certain songs hit me. But while reading that book, I felt a stronger personal connection to many of the songs. And that makes sense. After all, when reading the lyrics, there is nothing in between the words and your brain, no one else affecting the way a word reaches you. You can take it in at your own pace, go back over a certain verse or line as many times as you wish, sit with a lyric for a while and see where it takes you. Since then, I've had that experience with other books of lyrics. In fact, for my birthday just a few weeks ago, my mom sent me a book of Mekons lyrics, and a similar thing happened. And now comes Lyrics From The Heartland, a book of lyrics by Dave Ashdown, who records under the name Dashdown, which is written as dASHDOWN. You might also know him from his work in Waiting For Henry. This book contains lyrics both from Dashdown and Waiting For Henry.

The lyrics are presented in alphabetical order by song title, and the book begins with "7 Generations," a song that was included on Dashdown's Wish. In the early 1990s I got turned onto a band called Clan Dyken, who also had a song titled "Seven Generations." It was through that song that I first learned of the principle of trying to look that far ahead when considering the consequences of current actions. This song by Dave Ashdown likewise addresses that concept, and these days that idea seems even more striking, even more important, particularly as many people don't seem able to look ahead as far as next week, never mind trying to foresee the repercussions for that great length of time. People don't seem to care how we leave the earth for future generations. "Standing here in eternity/singing songs about modernity" (p. 7). This song places us at a point along a much larger journey. And in "Nativize," there are these lines: "Gotta look to the future/with an eye to the past" (p. 28). By the way, proceeds from this book benefit The Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples. So there is another reason to want to add the book to your collection.

The lyrics to "Hangnail," a song from the 2016 Waiting For Henry album Town Called Patience, include these lines, which stand out for me: "showed up on Monday/looking like Sunday" (p. 20). There is some humor there, to be sure, but I also like how those lines will create slightly different images for all who read them, depending on what a Sunday means to them. In that way, the readers participate in the meaning of lyrics. And I love that in "Sister Soundcheck," there is the line "It's gonna take a reality check" (p. 34), perhaps equating the sound and reality, at least in our minds. Music plays a strong part in many of the sets of lyrics presented here. "Checkpoint Charlies" is named after a music venue in New Orleans, and mentions Johnny Thunders. And there are lines like "the guitars chime" (p. 10) in "Back To Buck Lake," and "feel the magic/in a sound" (p. 14) in "Could It Be." I suppose the latter isn't necessarily about music, but it is in music that I feel the magic. The lines from that song that especially make me smile are "Did you think/you'd seen a holy ghost/are you kidding me/you're the most." Something about that phrase "you're the most" kind of delights me. And there are many more references to music. For example, in "Capes," a song from the most recent Dashdown EP, there is the line "go ahead, tell Tchaikovsky the news" (p. 16), a nod to Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven." And "Hurricane Honeys" (from 2024's Can't Get Too High Or Low) contains a nod to Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally." "She Goes By April" contains references to Jimi Hendrix and Debbie Harry. And of course "Life's Too Short To Play Covers" is all about music, and refers to several specific artists and songs. "Got this tune by The Babies/Billy Squier from the '80s/ain't afraid to tackle Johnny Cash/'cuz we been everywhere man" (p. 23). Other lines from that one that stand out, especially in a book of lyrics, are "you'd think by learning the lyrics/you'd be able to summon the spirits." Well, with this book, Dave Ashdown provides an opportunity for all of us to summon the spirits.

Lyrics From The Heartland was published on January 28, 2025.