There are some places in New Brunswick that are simply drenched in nostalgia. There are quiet stretches of wooded countryside that stand in as a living memory for many, largely due to the fact that they’ve changed very little in the last century. The Kingston Peninsula, wedged between the Kennebecasis and St. John (Wolastoq) Rivers, is one of those places. The sporadic farmhouses found along its roads are largely the same farmhouses that stood there a hundred years ago, and the same dusty lanes still wind along the fields, down towards the river’s edge.
These are the same “Dusty Roads” that Nova Scotian 6-piece, Americana-influenced band Cut, Split & Delivered are singing about on their new single, but they might have been found almost anywhere.
With “Dusty Roads,” Randy Colwell, Cut, Split & Delivered’s lead guitar player is reflecting on memories of a childhood place, its longevity, and, should that place still exist, whether you’d be welcome back. But this isn’t some notional concept—the quintessential Shire of our youth—but a very real place, with real people, and neither have changed all that much.
Colwell grew up in nearby Saint John, New Brunswick, spending his summers out past its suburbs and well into the rural expanse of the Kingston Peninsula. It’s practically a tourism destination now, a draw for people who find traveling by ferry to be something of an idiosyncratic thrill. It’s a paradise for leafers and apple pickers and anyone who feels that they can escape by putting a body of water between them and their troubles. For the most part, they’re right. It is like stepping into another world where the weather is always a little nicer and the cell phone reception is a little worse.
“I was fortunate to spend childhood summers at a cottage on the Saint John River, New Brunswick,” says Colwell. “It was an incredible place, still is, and I have many great memories of time spent in the country with family, friends and extended family. There were also difficulties and economic disparity in the area.
“I went back a few summers ago and had some early mornings to think and play guitar and observe the beauty of the place. I had started a riff over twenty years ago and lyrically it only got as far as the literal image of a hot summer day on a dusty road in the sunshine. I finally finished Dusty Roads as we developed songs for the Cut, Split and Delivered album. It became a song about place and how its context, realities and memory shift with time and getting older.
“It’s also a reflection on how spaces these days get used and who gets to use them.”
Much like the nostalgia of the song’s lyrics, “Dusty Roads” is equally nostalgic. This is the harmonious folk-rock of the mid-’70s brought back to life. Complete with a harmonica breakdown, the song dives into the sounds of your grandfather’s pickup… which may or may not still be found off one of these old dusty roads.
“Dusty Roads” is just the first single to be released by Cut, Split & Delivered from their forthcoming, self-titled album. It’s set to be released on October 15.