My Musical Stories: Lord Huron's "Ends of The Earth"

It was a cold day in February, and I was at the bowling alley with my homies.  The bowling alley we're at uses Touch Tunes to pump out the tunes, and it's a win-win for both parties, because the person paying the money can subject everyone at the bowling alley to their favorite music, and the bowling alley will definitely profit from it.

But on this night in February, someone chose to play a certain track, and it was instantaneously music to my ears.  They just had such a great sound, with tambourine and multiple guitars, and I think that's a little bit of sitar that we hear during the instrumental breaks, and then bongos to top it all off.  I had to pull out my phone and crack out Shazam to see what all the ruckus was, and man was I glad I did.

Folk-rock band Lord Huron has been doing what they do for just over five years now.  They've released three albums and gone on the road several times to share their music with those who purchase tickets to their concerts. The band sounds a little different from your average folk-rock band, and even though in their last album they took on a bit more of a full alt-rock sound, they still have some great tracks that go right back to their source material.

Today, I'd like to talk about the track that got me hooked on Lord Huron, that track being the lead off track from their debut release Lonesome Dreams back in 2012.  It's Ends of the Earth, a track that starts off the album as a musical masterpiece and makes you want to keep listening all the way to the end, at least that's what it did for me when I took a listen to the album cover-to-cover back this Winter.  There are so many tracks on this album that I could talk about, but talking about this track makes the most sense since it's the first one I discovered by this band.

To me, Ends of the Earth is about two perfect strangers who meet somewhere, perhaps a bar or a coffee shop, and one stranger tries to get the other to come along on this adventure, and be it a man to a woman or just two buddies trying to get somewhere exciting, this song does a crazy good job of advertising all these strange places you could see in the world, and the lead singer is definitely confident about conquering and exploring these landmarks with lyrics such as "Oh there's a river that winds on forever.  I'm gonna see where it leads." and "Oh there's a mountain that no man has mounted.  I'm gonna stand on the peak."  In my humble opinion, this song is all about getting the listener or the person the vocalist is talking to to take the plunge to go on this adventure, and the band went all in with instrumentation and lyrics to make this perfect song.

My favorite lyrics from Ends of the Earth come from the last verse before the end, and it's where things really seem to get personal.  Maybe at this point in the song you discover a different meaning and/or purpose to this track.  They're shared below here.

"I was a-ready to die for you baby

Doesn't mean I'm ready to stay.

What good is living the life you've been given

If all you do is stand in one place?

I'm on a river that winds on forever

Follow till I get where I'm goin'

Maybe I'm headed to die, but I'm still gonna try

I guess I'm goin' alone"

Now, this is where you notice that the person, whoever they are, didn't choose to take part in this adventure, and now the narrator must continue on it by himself.  This resonates home with me, and it might resonate home with some of us who feel like we're alone in our journeys.  You see, it doesn't need to be all about mountains and rivers, it could be about the major humps and hurdles in our lives that we must get over in order to continue living the life we live.  We have to go and explore them and learn from our mistakes in order to continue developing into better people.  Know you're never truly alone, but we have to be very careful in how we handle these ventures.

So, maybe you decide after listening to this song to check out the rest of Lonesome Dreams, and go on the ultimate musical adventure that is this album.  Or maybe you decide not to, and go about your other routines for the day.  But I strongly suggest going on the adventure in both senses on the term.  Listening to this album, and then stepping out of your comfort zone and exploring how to fix the problems in your life.

Below are videos for both the original version of this song by Lord Huron and the more recent cover done by country music artist Kenny Chesney.  They sound very similar, but of course Chesney's vocals are unmissable when listening to his version of the song.  I hope they inspire you as much as they inspired me, and that when your friends are looking for new music to listen to in the coming months, you will recommend the band Lord Huron.