The album opens with the stripped back melancholia of “Nobody Gonna Ride on the Railroad.” It is a simply yet lovely ballad about discarded technologies and the ghost towns and lost jobs left int heir wake. “Nobody gonna walk on the water, sold the Bible for a piece of bread,” he murmurs. “Take it on the Chin” is slinkier and darker, skulking along on a syncopated bass line. Its a blistering look at breaking mustangs, with sexual overtones that echo the rapacious conquering of the Old West. Ride looks at how the ancestors of those who displaced the buffalo and Native American were later displaced themselves by corporations and commerce. “Used to be silent used to be open, used to romance and life on the plains, now its Exxons and Kmarts, Best Westerns, McDonalds, my cattle graze on the big missile range. “Time Waits for No Main” moans and growls its way slowly through the story of a wannabe outlaw who meets his fantasy femme fetale better. Its a slinky and slyly amusing song that plays out like the male half of Poe’s “Hey Pretty” with a bitter twist. Montana is a jaunty ballad that does for Big Sky Country what so many songwriters before him have done for the Lone Star State. “Except for some far away thunder, things seem pretty much the same, the world hasn’t found me, the well’s about dry and the Lord don’t remember my name,” Berger sings on “Twister.” It is a hard bitten song that captures the constant threat of a life spent half way to ruin with one foot in the grave. Heavenly Ancients is a mystical tone poem which evokes the feeling of a vision quest. “Object of My Affection” is an adorable song about a crush and a little light stalking. Berger tackles the song with an easy laconic vocal. His voice cracks and growls on “Long Way From Vixenburg” a song that harkens back to older, less lawful days set in a staunchly modern town. The albums ends on a slow and slightly sad note. “A bottle of Wine, A Suitcase and Umbrella” waxes philosophical about the few talismans people need to protect themselves from the bad life has to offer.
More than anything else, Springsteen is an artist of his people and his era. Likewise, Berger’s Ride is the album of the Modern American West. It is an album of the everyday people that populate this sparse landscape. It captures the hardship and daily work that that fill the minutes of their lives. And it does so in a way that renders them something as memorable and important as they wind up being. Ride is as epic and episodic as a well written movie.
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