To help inspire the traveler in you, I am going to start periodically sharing guest posts from travelers I meet on the road. We’re going to start things off with a bit of an untraditional guest, who instead of writing will sing.

Name: David Strackany (also known as: Paleo)

Hometown: Elgin, Illinois, USA

Where he traveled: Across the USA. 215 cities. 54,434 miles. Still on the road.

Trip duration: 365+ days

Paleo is a good friend from college, one of the brains behind Iowa City’s James Gang, and a musical prodigy–the man drips creativity. He writes, records, composes, and sings and has been doing it all on the road touring, living out of his car, on couches, in borrowed basements, coffee shops, back rooms, friend’s parents’ spare bedrooms and other places for the last year, where he has been writing a song-a-day for a year and posting them to his website. April 15, 2007 was his 365th day. Traveling is tough as is, writing and recording a song-a-day makes it even tougher. The amazing thing is that most of Dave’s songs are impressively good and in most cases it’s not just him and a guitar, but a variety of instruments real and found, played and recorded in stairwells, bathrooms, back porches, churches and anywhere else he could find. To get a feel for his travels see the absolutely phenomenal photo travelogue by Cary Norton, who accompanied him for a few weeks. Cary’s photos capture a lot of the texture of America’s vast landscapes and provide a great glimpse not only into the Paleo’s DIY music world, but also an authentic photographic glimpse into the jagged edges and dog-eared corners of America’s grassroots independent music scene.

Where our paths crossed: Dave is a friend from college and our paths last crossed at a wedding of some friends in July 2006 in Iowa (right before I left the US) after he performed on The University of Iowa Pentacrest. (Day #105 in his journey)

Two of my favorite tracks from his song diary:

Second Sight written Jan 23, 2007 (Day 283) in Decatur, Illinois, USA (lyrics)

In The Morning Linda Dies written April 29, 2006 (Day 14) in Lutz, Florida, USA (lyrics)

Links

• Paleo’s website and song diary (all 365 of his songs are available for free download)
• Paleo’s MySpace page and tour schedule
• A phenomenal photo travelogue of Paleo’s travels by Cary Norton
• Download a podcast interview with Paleo on USA Today’s Pop Candy on iTunes.
• NPR’s Morning Edition covers the story here. update