If you know Jack Kerouac, then you probably know of his profound effect on Beat Poetry, his severe drinking habit, or his strong affliction for Catholicism and conservative politics. You might also know about his experience with Buddhism or his inability to leave his mother in his later life.

However, what you might not know is that Jay Farrar from Son Volts and Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie joined together to honor Kerouac, one of their favorite writers, with a twelve song CD. Originally meant to simply be the soundtrack for the coming documentary about Kerouac’s life, the people he knew, and the culture he influenced, it quickly turned into a full-length album entitled One Fast Move or I’m Gone.

Inspired by Kerouac’s book Big Sur, One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur (the documentary) is due out later this fall. It contains interviews with his contemporaries, such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carolyn Cassady, Joyce Johnson and Michael McClure, those poets, artists, and musicians he’s influenced, passages from his album, and intense imagery he encountered on his travels juxtaposed with Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard’s folk inspired soundtrack.

This soundtrack, released on October 20^, 2009, contains a feel exactly related to road tripping across the country. It is no surprise that Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard have studied his writing, because they are able to translate the melancholy feel expressed throughout his novels into a beautiful country, folk, indie mash up.

Ben Gibbard’s songs are obviously more pop than those of Jay Farrar, however, this CD is no Narrow Stairs. Jay Farrar’s intensely moving alternative country style openly influences Gibbard, which in turn creates a beautifully constructed album. Despite the stylistic differences openly observed between the Farrar songs, such as “Big Sur”, and the Gibbard songs, like my favorite “One Fast Move Or I’m Gone”, the album flows easily from one song to the other.

Listening to this album through headphones and watching the musicians themselves is an entirely different experience. A friend, who was unfamiliar with the new album and Kerouac’s work, I went to see them on Friday, October 23^rd, at the El Rey. For those unfamiliar with the El Rey, it’s an intimate theater in the middle of the Art Deco District on Wilshire. Built in the 1930’s, its original purpose was a movie theater, later converted in 1994 into a concert venue. Ben and Jay played only songs from their album, each getting a turn as lead vocals and guitar. Often times Ben would escape to the piano for a song, and once left the stage entirely for Jay to perform “Final Horrors”, a down home blues inspired song. Watching them come together and play off each other was a truly inspiring view.

It is easy to get lost in thought with these songs, picturing exactly what Kerouac had seen on his joineries around the country and his summer spent in Big Sur. If the documentary is half as moving as the first joint effort by Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard, I will consider it a huge success.

–M.Green
Urban Roots Radio Saturday 10-12 PM