Our first Lyric Video for our new album
NO STREET SIGNS NO STRAIGHT LINES. (06.21.23) is ready for viewing here.
Here is some context for the shrine image, on this post, the writing of 5 Miles Out and creation of the lyric video.
In 2019 Blue Dirt Girl rode VIA Rail from Vancouver to Toronto and back as “Artists On Board”. Via Tour Blog posts and videos here.
Somewhere east of the Rockies a guy got on the train and, as one does, got into a long conversation with Kathryn.
The talk was light hearted and casual but as he was getting off the train he dropped this bomb: “Well, this is my stop. I’m on my way to my daughter’s funeral.” Any artist knows the feeling of being emotionally driven to create, and a shocking parting comment was the spark for 5 Miles Out.
In the first draft the lyrics were “5 miles out of Edson” but we changed it to “5 miles out of Bethune” because we like the way it sounds (we still love you , Edson). Our train didn’t even go through Bethune; that choice was pure artistic license.
After playing this song for maybe a year Albert got curious; what would he find five miles out of Bethune? He used the google maps distance measuring tool, and google street view, to plunk myself down on highway 11, five miles southeast of Bethune, and he found this roadside shrine used as image for this post.
It looks like someone has been maintaining the shrine because it appears with fresh flowers in subsequent street view images.
If you know who, or what, this shrine is for, first of all we hope that time has eased your pain, and secondly if you would like to tell your story we would like to hear it.
Albert discovered that you cannot use google map screenshots for any posts/videos so we needed a solution to share the shrine image and create a lyric video. Thanks to Maria and Bill Folk, in Regina, Saskatchewan, for the unsolicited video of Saskatchewan highway drive and requested still photos of shrine the lyric video creation started. Kathryn added her 1997 Saskatchewan grass field video and the 5 Miles Out lyric video was complete.
Blue Dirt Girl Via Rail Canada Artists on Board trip from Vancouver to Toronto and back had a million moments with train passengers and so many fond memories for Albert and I. The band was booked for exact same Artists on Board trip in 2020 but the pandemic stopped that second trip and sadly the program is no longer happening.
Listen to all 15 songs on NO STREET SIGNS NO STRAIGHT LINES here.