The Grahams, a husband-and-wife music duo who live in Nashville, drew inspiration for their new album “Kids Like Us” from a motorcycle trip down all of Route 66.
Doug Graham told The Tulsa World the trip was “magical.” The newspaper added:
Because their motorcycle was trailed by a film crew, the album will be followed by a documentary about the journey. Alyssa said the documentary will come out in early May and will be released in five short parts before the “whole thing” is released. […]
“So we took a motorcycle course and both of us passed,” Alyssa said. “Two weeks later, we set out on Route 66 starting in Chicago on a motorcycle across the country, 2,300 miles, and that was the first time we had ridden motorcycles. […]
Doug dished details about the album and the resulting visual was a musical serving of Neapolitan ice cream. They picked up ’60s pop flavor in the Midwest, which spawned great girl groups. They found Oklahoma to be a rich ribbon of roots music. And, at the end of the ride, Los Angeles provided big, bombastic vibes, plus “glossy” and “surfy” sounds.
The Grahams said the most memorable part of the trip was Harley Russell at the Sandhills Curiosity Shoppe in Erick, Oklahoma.
The curiosity shop owner was such an interesting character that he’s a lock for the documentary.
Doug said nothing was for sale in the shop. Say what?
“If you get to know him pretty well, I’m sure you can start bartering some stuff with him,” he said. “But I’m pretty sure that in general he is pretty tied (to his items) and has a lot of memories with the things he collects.”
Alyssa said people from all over the world go to the shop “because if you read anything about Route 66 and some of the stops, like the Blue Whale, I think (Harley) is mentioned a lot because of, like Doug says, his larger-than-life personality and the fact that he owns a shop that looks basically like a hoarding shop where nothing is for sale, but everything has a story behind it.”
A summary of the “Kids Like Us” album from the duo’s publicist stated:
“Everything about Route 66 – the neon signs, the motels, the cars, the souvenirs, even the menus – are stuck in a different time,” Alyssa says. “Of course the music that developed would have moments of fantasy, moments of horror, even some moments of the supernatural.”
The album may be downloaded from Amazon via Mp3 format here. The album also can be listened to at Spotify below.
The Grahams’ YouTube channel is here.
(Image of The Grahams via Reybee Inc. publicity)