Dawes’ “Stories Don’t End” Is the Perfect Road Trip Album

Photo by Sam Jones

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Dawes
Stories Don’t End
HUB Records

I was first introduced to Dawes on a stretch of deserted highway in 2010, following the band’s first release, North Hills. It was a fitting introduction. My production team and I were struggling to film a grueling cross-country video series, but we lost our motivation somewhere in Mississippi. Our cinematographer thankfully plugged his iPod into the van stereo and launched the opening track, “That Western Skyline.” It was soft, simple, and became a prescription for our myopia.

Now, three years later, Dawes is embarking on its own new adventure—one without a record label, where the band members are sitting behind the wheel (HUB is their own label) after a split with their old label, ATO Records.

The musicians traveled from their Los Angeles home to Echo Mountain, a church-turned-studio in Asheville, North Carolina, to record their new record, Stories Don’t End, which comes out April 9. They also switched up producers, bringing on Grammy winner Jacquire King, who has produced the likes of Kings of Leon and Tom Waits. “With this album,” bandleader Taylor Goldsmith told Rolling Stone, “we’re able to stay a rock and roll band and maintain classic qualities.”

But their classic style isn’t lacking in modernity. “Hey Lover,” for instance, successfully manages a reference to one of the giants of the internet:

I never tell her when she plays a song I never heard.
Because I always learn the music and forget the words.
I want to ride with her.
I wish I sung that well.
Just copy, paste, Google search and send it to myself.

It also includes my favorite bit on the album, an unabashedly sentimental expression of a desire to start a family that’s both sweet and surprising in its brashness:

But I want to raise with you.
And watch our younglings hatch.
Fuckin’ make the first letters of their first names match.

“From A Window Seat,” meanwhile, is a bouncy piano banger that tells the story of an airplane passenger’s in-flight daydreams. Like so many Dawes creations, it tells a vivid story, places you firmly inside the mind of the main character, and motivates you to journey through Americana—by air, in this case. Listen:

Dawes created a social experience around this single, encouraging fans to tweet, using the hashtag #fromawindowseat, photos of their car and airplane views as they traveled cross-country. In the stream, you’ll find stories from places like Buffalo and Minneapolis, united by anticipation for the album’s impending release.

While Dawes’ may have a classic sound, it’s a bit early to call them classic. Even if, last Friday, the band began a tour with Bob Dylan. So if you’re yearning for a road trip, the next best thing might be checking out one of their shows. If it’s sold out (Dylan, remember), just put on Stories Don’t End and jump in the shotgun seat. Dawes will drive.

Click here for more music coverage from Mother Jones.

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate