Ashland
 
The record begins with a journey alongside Peter Levenda, a conspiracy writer who became obsessed with this Kentucky city, imagining it as the geographical nexus of history. Drawing on Levenda's very strange series of books called "Sinister Forces" and his trip southwards in a cherry-red convertible, the song sees the Kentucky landscape as a weird American panorama that combines Indian heritage (the legend that Kentucky means "dark and bloody ground" in some unknown Indian language), Colonel Sanders billboards, and hometown icons such as Charles Manson, Naomi Judd and Henry Clay. The lyric "our traveling companions are the ghosts we've abandoned" serves as the mission statement of the record: that our inheritance as Americans are the unresolved questions of the past.

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MUSICIANS
Doug Stone – Vocals, Guitar
Robin Aigner – Backing vocals
David Wechsler – Piano, Backing vocals
Gerald Menke – Pedal Steel Guitar
Joey Wesienberg – Mandolin
Claudia Chopek – Violin
Jane Scarpantoni – Cello
J.D. Foster – Bass
Bill Gerstel – Drums

Music and Lyrics by Doug Stone