On Driving: 'Santa Fe' by Sam Crain

I never thought I'd say it, but driving through Kansas on the way home was lax and calming. When you're equipped with the right music, any situation which is normally unbearable can be tolerated—like separating yourself from reality and living in a music video or art film. Samantha Crain was on the track list and this song is pretty fantastic for a variety of reasons: her, thoughts of Santa Fe, Frontier Ruckus, a subtle banjo... It fits the bill for lengthy road trip, to say the least. It's an unforgettable thing to witness the dry, yucca- and tumbleweed-scattered hills of Colorado turn into Kansas's bewildering flat farmland, and moreover into the hills and lush cliffs of Missouri.