Follow This Highway: A Road-Trip Song About Sedona's Red Rocks
Some roads stay with you long after you've driven them. "Follow This Highway" is my song about one of those: the winding drive into Sedona, Arizona, where the canyon walls glow red, and the pines climb up to the rim. It's a song for anyone who's ever packed the car, pointed it west, and felt like they were heading home.
The song has been featured on NPR's Car Talk: Show 1040, The Dr. Pepper Experiment, and Show 1541, The Case of the Disappearing Pedals.
Watch "Follow This Highway" by Neptune's Car.
Buy the Song • Listen on Spotify
The Story Behind the Song
The song started with a family trip to Sedona, Arizona, one sweltering September. My husband, our son, and my in-laws were all along for the ride. We flew into Phoenix, and it was a long, hot drive north: hours of desert and saguaro cactus, then open high country stretching out under a huge blue sky. Just when it felt like the road would never end, we turned off toward Sedona and the red rocks rose up all around us. It felt unreal, like driving into a painting.
Red rock formations along the road into Sedona, Arizona. Isn’t it just like a painting?
Every day had the same rhythm. Mornings were bright and impossibly blue, and by afternoon the monsoon thunderheads would build over the canyons. After the storms passed, the red rocks seemed to glow from the inside. The desert kept surprising us: a tarantula making its way across the red dirt, a scorpion scurrying out of sight. Years later, memories from this trip turned into a song.
My first time seeing a tarantula! Isn’t she gorgeous?
In "Follow This Highway," the narrator packs the car and drives all night toward the red rocks to reunite with an old lover. I wanted the listener to feel and picture what I experienced on that drive, the canyon, the eagles, the blue sky, and to accompany a character who's chasing something more than a view. It's a driving song, but really it's about being pulled toward someone, and the hope that when you arrive, you'll stay.
Steve's guitar parts carry the feeling of the road. Alongside his acoustic and electric guitar, he plays a Nashville-tuned guitar, strung high for a bright shimmer that sounds like light on the canyon walls.
Take It on Your Next Road Trip
Add "Follow This Highway" to your road-trip playlist.
Lyrics
I'm leaving. Gonna pack my car.
Gonna drive real far—
down the blacktop tar.I'm travelin'. Gonna see the sights.
Gonna drive all night—
keep the headlights bright.Gonna make some real plans.
Gonna see some new lands.
Take a steady hand home.Chorus
Follow this highway
through the canyon
where the red rocks glow.
Wind through the forest.
Trace the rim edge
where the pine trees grow.
And this is what I know—
gonna make this my home.I'm watchin' the eagles fly,
the clouds drift by,
gonna be a blue sky.Still drivin'. Gonna be there soon.
Gonna beat the moon.
We'll have the afternoon.Gonna make some real plans.
Gonna see some new lands.
Take a steady hand home.Chorus
Follow this highway
through the canyon
where the red rocks glow.
Wind through the forest.
Trace the rim edge
where the pine trees grow.
And this is what I know—
this is what I know—
this is what I know—
gonna make this my home.
Gonna make this my home.
Credits
Holly Hanson: vocals
Steve Hayes: background vocals, acoustic guitar, Nashville-tuned guitar, electric guitar
Sven Larson: upright bass
Mark Thayer: percussion
Written by Holly Hanson. © 2011 Wild Braid Music (BMI). All rights reserved. From the album Strawberry Moon by Neptune's Car.
For DJs & Programmers
- Genre
- Contemporary Folk; Singer-Songwriter
- Summary
- A road-trip song: the narrator drives all night through Arizona's red-rock canyons to reunite with an old lover. Inspired by the songwriter's family trip to Sedona.
- Themes
- highway songs, driving songs, road trips, the Southwest, finding home
- Length
- 00:03:15
- Content
- Clean
- Previously aired
- NPR's Car Talk, Shows 1040 and 1541
- Album
- Strawberry Moon
- Contact Us
- Holly Hanson and Steve Hayes
More Songs for the Road
If the West is calling you too, try Roll with the Tumbleweeds, Sweet Celia Anne (aka Mattie Earp), or Wild Across the Prairie.