PS If anyone has any suggestions for further reading on these themes, please let me know!

I think it may be misguided to suggest that the quality of which he speaks is uniquely American. That whole "this story could only happen in America" thing wears a bit thin.

I dunno, I have wandered all over Canada in my time, and I am pretty sure that's a tougher road to wander. With one tenth of the population, it's a long way between hobo signs and pies to steal.

My suspicion is that the wandering spirit is in many of us, wherever we originate. For others, like the stereotypical army brat, or child of a diplomat, etc, wandering is thrust upon us. We moved a lot until I was 13. To this day, I feel rootless and the house that Jen and I have owned for 9 years doesn't really feel like what I imagine "home" should feel. Nowhere does.

Right, maybe I quoted the wrong bit -- what I liked about the article was our split views on rootlessness. That rootlessness if very much American or Canadian or whatever. And at the same time that rootlessness is suspect. Anyhoo --

I ain't never settlin' down.

Never.

In 2002 the University of Bologna hosted a conference on this very subject. I like the idea of a whole bunch of people gathering in Bologna to talk about peripatetic Americans.

Here's something you might like to read: Google's html version of the pdf of a paper from that conference that cites a whole lot of music you probably know and love.