"Much Farther to Go" by Rosie Thomas, Tuesday, December 21, 2021

In 2006, Pitchfork announced that Sufjan Stevens and Rosie Thomas were having a baby together. This announcement was later retracted and clarified as an April Fool's prank. While Stevens and Thomas may not have human children together, the two musicians worked together throughout their careers and even shared a Brooklyn apartment with fellow musician Denison Witmer. Stevens and Thomas recorded Rosie's 2006 record These Friends of Mine over two years in that apartment. The album contained ten tracks, three of them covers, roommate Denison Witmer's "Paper Doll," Fleetwood Mac's "Song Bird" and R.E.M.'s "The One I Love." The songs reflect the singer on a journey to make it in the big city. The romantic notion of not having much money but living in one of the greatest cities on earth creating art is the vibe this short album gives.

HOW I WISH I COULD GO BACK IN TIME. Rosie Thomas comes from Michigan, but attended college at Calvary Chapel Bible College for a year. She started playing with a Tooth & Nail band called Valor 100 before recording her solo record, released in 2001. Thomas hasn't enjoyed the success of her musical friend Sufjan Stevens, as Rosie took a break from music after releasing her 2012 record to deal with health problems and later motherhood, just as Stevens' career was blossoming; however, Rosie Thomas is a highly connected musician. Along with her association with Sufjan Stevens and Denison Witmer, she has worked with Dave Bazan on many of her records, including These Friends of Mine. Other notable collaborators include Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer, Damien Jurado, Jeremy Enigk, William Fitzsimmons, Iron & Wine, and the Shins. Her most recent effort, announced on her website is a "multimedia series of series of resources, entertainment, and encouragement for parents of all ages featuring music, podcast, videos, essays, assorted content and community that promotes finding common ground, connection, and comfort." 

I TOOK THE TRAIN ALL THE WAY TO BROOKLYN HEIGHTS. New York is one of the most romanticized cities, if not the most romanticized city ever. There's countless movies about young men and women who cast away the potential for a stable, yet boring, life in hopes of being something great in New York. We see the scary "murder" apartments. We see the rats and the squalor. We feel the need to clutch our bags a little bit closer as we see our young protagonist go on the filthy subway. We all have heard of the muggings and the killings late at night. Always taken too young before his or her breakthrough, the would-be-star is attacked commuting one night from a dissatisfying job that left him or her short of money. If not murdered, he or she was almost to the point of coming down with a stress-induced auto- immune disease that wreaked havoc on sleeping patterns. Of course, murder on the New York subway isn't what this song is about. Instead, the wistful scenes of the snow-covered sidewalks in a bustling city talk about a love who is no longer with the speaker. Like every struggling New York creative, Thomas sings that she "has much farther to go." Literally trudging through the snow makes her feel like striving for greatness, though she feels a loss that her love isn't with her. Isn't that life, though? We strive and strive to make our mark until one day we realize that we've done as much as we can. I still have much farther to go as a writer. I want to learn more next year. But at some point, can't we ever take a breath and enjoy the fact that we're in the middle of the dream, and that the process of moving towards the dream is also part of the dream?

Read “Much Farther To Go” by Rosie Thomas on Genius.

Live with Sufjan Stevens, Denison Witmer, and Jeff Shoop: