Jenny is gone, long gone, in “Going to Dallas,” and she’s sure you’ll keep her secret.

Track: “Going to Dallas”
Album: Jenny From Thebes

My wife spent a long time in Montana, so the fact that Jenny spent some time there (at least as a fake out, if she didn’t go) has always rung true to me. I love “Going to Dallas,” a song title that feels like a Mountain Goats song from decades ago, because it’s upbeat and jumpy, but it’s just an absolute screamer with the lyrics. Our narrator, Jenny, is on the road. She’s always on the road, but this is how she stays perpetually there, rather than being hunted.

“Just mute donkeys // still as statues // in each saloon I’ve been through,” is all-time John Darnielle. I can’t get over the, forgive the word, stank, he puts on “donkeys” every time I hear it. This is Jenny not just escaped, but confidently escaped, and proud of her legacy. That element of Jenny is the kind of cool money cannot buy. She’s not gone casually, she’s gone, putting her trust in you because she knows you won’t blow her cover. The fact that she trusts you makes it more likely you won’t blow it. It’s recursive and beautiful and part of the road.