A 3D - Song: Pony Express [Song] (performed by Alabama)

There is no doubt, that songwriting done right, is an artform!
With its typically limited time in song length it has to use words in the most efficient way to put emotions and pictures in the listeners hearts and minds. Thoughtful videos typically build upon the lyrics and evolve the stories to create actual pictures to the words. And as we know, sometimes they say more than a thousand words. Country music is about life and it os telling the stories that happen when life happens, like no other genre.

But once in a while a song comes along, that is exceptional in the way it creates a story. One such song is 'Pony Express' and I need to call it a 3-dimensional song!

'Pony Express' can be found on the 1986-album by Alabama called 'The Touch' and it closes the album as a true story song with a length of almost 8 minutes (7:53). It was written by Buddy Cannon, Ken Lambert, Dean Dillon and Alabama bass guitarist and singer Teddy Gentry.

On all early Alabama albums, Teddy Gentry and Jeff Cook each had at least one song assigned, on which they would be singing lead vocals. Typically songs that they had written or co-written. So on 'Pony Express' it was Teddy Gentry's turn to do lead vocals.

The sonic style of the song is similar to their hit 'She And I', heavy on crashing percussion, yet rather mid-tempo, following the story line. Light echoy effects make the vocals sound like they are coming from a big empty hallway, giving them a haunting effect.

The story of the song almost needs to be called complex in the way it is build. And if we pay attention to it, it develops a certain 3-dimensionality. As the title suggests, it talks about the way mail used to be delivered in the 19th century, by riders on horse back called "Pony Express". This was when no other means of safe transport was available on the American frontier.

Building on that premises, the songs develops in 3 stages and runs its close to 8-minutes course on the timeline.

In the first chapter we get to know that worn-out Pony Express Rider who comes into a bar and orders some whiskey. We learn, that he started that morning in Sacramento, California, had to outrun some outlaws and that it sure has been a long day for him. But as they say, somebody's got do the job and deliver the mail.

While the song moves on to chapter 2, the lyrics start to move into two more dimensions: time and geography.

By now we have moved farther east and the plot has moved into the late 19th century. The mail is no longer delivered by the Pony Express, but the railroad has made its away across the continent. The delivery guy looks older now and is no longer longer riding a pony, but the train instead, to deliver mail and the union payroll. But that doesn't mean, it has gotten easier, because Jesse James had held up his train and escaped with all the money.

Chapter 3 eventually moves into the 20th century and you guessed it, mail is now air-delivered by plane. And while the delivery guy by now looks haggard and old, he tells us that he left Denver, early that morning, but he ended up all the way in Cuba, because a hijacker "needed a lift".

So after close to 8 minutes the song took us on a travel from California to Cuba and from the early 19th century to the 20th. And there is even some suspicion that the main character of the song has also aged along the way.

Next to the vivid images the lyrics bring across, it almost feels like a documentary about travel over the ages and an adventure story about a potential time traveller (could it be, that it was the same guy all along the way?) rolled into one simple (or maybe yet complex) song.

The songwriting on this Alabama deep track is a prime example for an artform, which takes one on a journey through time and emotions without ever having to leave ones home!