“Going to Kirby Sigston” looks in on the life of two people in a town of 100 in the north of England.

Track: “Going to Kirby Sigston”
Album: Ghana (1999)

Kirby Sigston is home to 100 people. It’s just north of Leeds in England and it is 72 degrees Fahrenheit there today. In the early 90s, John Darnielle got a postcard from a friend in Kirby Sigston and was so taken by the name that he used it for “Going to Kirby Sigston.”

That’s how most of the “Going to…” songs seem to start. They’re as much about characters in different physical space as they are about listeners appreciating how important physical space is. When you listen you can imagine yourself in an impossibly small village in the English countryside and you can consider what differences that life would contain. The characters board up windows, dance outside, and eat “cold, black eggs” from their “special chicken.” It’s probably going to be a difficult adjustment for most of you.

The song itself is quick. It’s over in two verses and two minutes and it raises some nagging questions. This couple is less clearly defined than many in the catalog, so it’s hard to tell what their relationship is like. They seem happy enough, though dancing isn’t always a good sign in a Mountain Goats song. Depending on how you want to read it, the “I had a present for you hidden somewhere” line is either sweet or ominous. No matter how you take it, “Going to Kirby Sigston” is a short experiment about a couple trying to live a totally different kind of life. John Darnielle seems to allow that couple a few sweet moments, if nothing else.