All a woman needs on Corduroy Road, according to the lovely new Long Mama song “Corduroy Road”:
• A candle
• A match
• A good book to read
• A fire
• A sweet song
• A warm place to sleep
Ahhhh. Doesn’t that sound nice? Chilling in the woods and living simply? That’s the back-to-basics sentiment behind the gentle and soothing “Corduroy Road,” which finds Long Mama singer-songwriter-guitarist Kat Wodtke reflecting on her time spent living in Alaska. Unplug (as much as you can unplug while streaming a song online) and listen to the latest track from one of Milwaukee’s finest indie-folk/Americana groups below:
Some more about that whole “living in Alaska” thing: Raised in the Midwest, Wodtke drove to Alaska at the age of 22 and took a job building scenery for the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre. She lived in a small trailer six miles from town, next door to the theater company’s master carpenter, John Bartlett.
“John was the definition of living simply,” Wodtke says. “He lived in a one-room house with a bed, a desk, a TV, and a mini fridge. A lot of the buildings out there were made from recycled theater sets.”
“Corduroy Road” comes from the same session that produced Long Mama’s fantastic 2022 debut album Poor Pretender. Backing vocalist Eva Nimmer, upright bassist Samual Odin, guitarist Andrew Koenig, and drummer Nick Lang join Wodtke on the track.
“We finished what we came to do, had some time left in the studio, and wound up getting a beautiful live take of this song that didn’t quite fit with the rest of the album,” Wodtke says. “It’s gentler and more in the traditional folk lane. I wrote it about how happy I was living out in the woods with no running water and very few belongings.”
If you’re itching to see Long Mama live, you should absolutely scratch that itch. The group will be crisscrossing the state this summer, playing shows in Eau Claire, Stevens Point, West Bend, Ripon, Viroqua, Milwaukee, and more. Find a full tour schedule HERE.
“We can’t wait to play all these great spots,” Wodtke says. “We’re getting to see so many beautiful parts of the country that we haven’t explored before.”
Oh, and a “corduroy road” is basically a log road where the logs are placed perpendicular to the direction of the road. You know, like corduroy! Neat!
Exclusive articles, podcasts, and more. Support Milwaukee Record on Patreon.
RELATED ARTICLES
• Long Mama takes to the wilderness in “The Narrows” music video
• In it for the long haul: The belated arrival of Long Mama’s ‘Poor Pretender’