Guitarist, writer, and adventurer—usually by way of hitchhiking—Elijah Wald's new book, "Riding With Strangers: A Hitchhiker's Guide" is a road book good enough to join a few others of this ilk. The long list of these books is capped by tomes such as Jack Kerouac's "On the Road," Paul Theroux's "The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia," and "Travels with Alice" by Calvin Trillin."
Mind you, "Riding With Strangers" is an entirely different sort of travel book in that the literary aspirations are minimal and mention of scenery scant. Instead, Wald who is a musician writes in riffs. He hitches across country, meeting a range of folks who either do or do not pick him up. The ones who do aren't frightfully wacky or philosophical; instead they are genuine people, believable and helpful.
So, too, are Wald and his friend, fellow singer/songwriter Rosalie Sorrels, an Idaho native. Together they are appearing at Iconoclast Books in Ketchum, 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 24 to promote Wald's new book. Naturally, he is hitchhiking his way around the country on the book promotional tour. He maintains, "We are all born hitchhikers. For months until we begin to crawl, we can travel only when some decent soul ... picks us up." It's a darn good point.
Wald is without a doubt a character, maybe more so than the drivers who pick him up. It's his observations, musings and commitment to the art of hitchhiking that connects the dots.
"Hitchhiking combines the greatest pleasures of travel and raises them to their highest plane. There is freedom, first of all, the liberty to go where you will, to escape your workaday responsibilities and, above all, to liberate yourself from the stocks in which friendly expectation locks and hobbles your homebound character."
Given a paragraph like that, the reader would be well advised to tape himself to a chair lest he run out the door waving his thumb. For Wald, there are few dangers. He is always in control and fortunately carries a guitar, making him appear tantalizingly artsy. Who wouldn't pick him up? Wald offers up numerous tips for acceptable and successful hitching garnered over two and a half decades of catching rides all over the world.
Wald is the author of six books, both alone and with various co-writers, including "Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson" and the "Invention of the Blues; Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas," and "River of Song: A Musical Journey Along the Mississippi."
Wald is no stranger to music. He lived for years overseas and played in many different cities, including forming a blues band in Sevilla, Spain. Sorrels and Wald are cut from similar cloth. They have spent a lifetime traveling and playing. One of her sobriquets is the Travelin' Lady. Sorrels, who often shoots over to the Wood River Valley to entertain from her home outside of Boise, is the grand-dame of the traditional folk music scene.
My only complaint with Wald is that on his excursion from the East Coast to West, he breezes through Idaho without even stopping for a jam session with Rosalie. Pity. Now, however, their joint session at Iconoclast is one ride worth taking.
Elijah Wald hits the road on his way to Ketchum.
