A Field Guide to Getting Lost

It was not until later in life that Solnit became invested in country music and the blues. Coming from an immigrant family with liberal ties, country music felt as though it belonged to a different population. However, older country music came to her with its anthology of sad stories, further connecting her to the color blue. Songs by Tanya Tucker and Patsy Cline brought Solnit to different times and spaces where the emotions of blue remained the same.

Solnit was particularly struck by the role of landscape in these songs: “So though they were overtly love songs, in most of them the landscape was a deeper anchor for being and the object of another, more enduring love” (115). These places represented memory, the closest thing the storytellers had to returning to an earlier time.

Solnit made a mixed tape called “Blue,” filled with songs that were reminiscent of the blues and which told these stories of place. She felt tethered as she drove through landscapes while listening to these stories. These songs were further layered by their own history. The blues evolved from African music, influenced by the southeastern American landscape. Enslavement and exposure to English culture further carved the unique