After this week’s news about the death of Sam Shepard and my memorial post yesterday, I’ve been reading a lot about the man. I came across a quote from Shepard saying that he only felt at home in his pickup truck — I remember him saying something similar in the Shepard & Dark documentary, and there are similar sentiments to be found throughout his written work.
It’s no surprise that the quintessentially American writer and actor was also a rootless man forever in search of another frontier. Was Shepard’s famous wandering spirit a symptom of becoming a parody of himself or a reflection of the endless curiosity that saw him creating work seemingly right up until his declining health and death took that away too?
People closer to Shepard might be able to answer that question for the late playwright, but Sam wasn’t the only American inspired to wander the wide open spaces of the Southwest. Here’s the word on the BBC doc American Nomads…
Eight years in the making, American Nomads is a ninety minute documentary film written and hosted by Richard Grant, and inspired by his book American Nomads (Ghost Riders UK). The film takes the form of a 6,000 mile journey around the American Southwest in search of modern-day American nomads. Why have they chosen to live a wandering life, and what do they gain and sacrafic? Characters include rodeo cowboys, a traveling preacher, punk kids riding freight trains, a Wall Street drop-out, a wild man of the mountain backcountry, and retirees in motorhomes.
Here’s American Nomads…
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