Thank you, Ken Mick, for this recording. Rehearsal at Lipscomb University, arranged by Dr. Gary Wilson for a choral performance.
I just love The Arcadian Wild. Here’s a reel of “Man in Room 39,” a song from their first album. “Man in Room 39” is a quietly rousing and subversively liberating song in the best folk tradition. I feel emboldened on behalf of every young person I know, not to mention myself, every time I hear it.
- CD: “The Arcadian Wild,” 2015. Link: Apple Music.
- My previous posts on The Arcadian Wild.
- It’s impossible to choose my favorite song by the Arcadian Wild: “Benediction,” “The Graduate,” the whole of their Welcome Reframed and Christmas albums, “If we don’t make it out alive” (performed at 2025 BTLOG). But this one is right there with them. My study on campus has “Room 39” on the door.
Windowless room, number 39
Holds an honest man with a thirsty mind
But there are no rivers inside these walls
And so he sings
Roaring brooks and cherry trees
This is the place my heart longs to be
The blossoms in the water are calling me
His glossy shoes only hold him down
They were never meant to cover ground
So he slips them off and frees his soul
Then he goes to
Roaring brooks and cherry trees
This is the place my heart longs to be
The blossoms in the water are calling me
Remember a mountaintop has no roof
And a home in the wild needs no window
Leave your cage, break your chains
Roar your name
And sing
Roaring brooks and cherry trees
This is the place my heart longs to be
The blossoms in the water are calling me
Roaring brooks and cherry trees (yeah)
This is the place my heart longs to be
The blossoms in the water are calling me
Written by: Everett Davis, Lincoln Mick, Sarah Jane Wood.
