‘They have worries, they’re counting the miles, they’re thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they’ll get there — and all the time they’ll get there anyway…’ I told Dean that the thing that bound us all together in this world was invisible, and to prove it pointed to long lines of telephone poles that curved off out of sight over the bend of a hundred miles of salt. — Jack Kerouac, On the Road

The staging of the Great American Road Trip – two people side-by-side, separated only by a console, stick shift, or small width of bench seat and encapsulated by an isolated room on wheels – is a well-traveled metaphor for a pair of people searching, moving forward, getting lost, finding… what? Answers, more questions, love, more heartache?

Some couples pile up the miles, listening for every click of the odometer, happily watching as the string of nines flashes to a string of zeros. For them, the distance traveled brings greater satisfaction than the scenery passed or the looks exchanged on the journey. Others seek to chop the clock, rolling back the dials to a day when a kick on the accelerator resulted in a roar rather than a rattle.

Wild Daydream’s ‘Lovely Lady Night’ describes travelers who are cresting new horizons, yet have have been together long enough to recall with nostalgia a previous playlist, the one with the special song by the obscure country band that they heard on their first date.

Love’s more like a road trip
Two creatures unified
Love’s sharing a song you heard
But from a distant time
Love is our odometer
Reminding both of us of every mile
Oh you’re my lovely lady night

Cue the Wayback Machine… I once played, for someone who exited our shared vehicle years ago, a song I had written. It wasn’t a great song, but I was proud of it. When the last note faded, she said ‘It sounds like ‘Blowing in the Wind.” It was not meant as a compliment; it was an indictment of imitation. I put the guitar away and never played another song for her.

Thus it is with some trepidation that I say that ‘Lovely Lady Night’ floats in the ether between Bob Dylan’s ‘I Threw It All Away’ and ‘Lady Lady Lay.’ Which, in my mind, is a good place to be. Dylan lost an album somewhere between the last track of John Wesley Harding and the first track of Planet Waves, an album full of love songs with well-sung melodies and simple lyrics and organs and pop constructions. Songs like ‘Lovely Lady Night.’ Listen for the beautiful guitar, the overdrive’s edge dialed back to let the expression glow.

Wild Daydream is the solo project of Simeon WIlliams of Arlington, Texas. ‘Lovely Lady Night’ appears on his new ten-song album, Wild Daydream. It’s a wonderful album, immediately entering my list for Best Albums of 2019. ‘Lovely Lady Night’ is our third Song of the Day from Wild Daydream. We previously featured ‘Children of Allison’ and ‘Good Company.’ Simeon’s work has made three additional appearances in these pages: he was the producer for Cowboy Grizzly’s ‘Wash Away’ and ‘Southern Rider,’ and mixed our previous Song of the Day, Cowboy Grizzly’s ‘For the Moment.’

The music of Wild Daydream is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, and Apple Music. And be sure to follow Wild Daydream on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.