I happened upon the music of furry musician Kri5 from his entry in the recent Express yourself 2021 music contest where he made it to the semifinals with an expressive classical guitar piece. I was happy to find that this alligator and med student was also a multi-instrumentalist and wouldn't you know it, he was open for song commissions.

I commissioned him to do a classical guitar tune based on my favorite of all time, Classical Gas by Mason Williams, whose song was so named because classical guitar added fuel to the driving melody. Well I wanted a driving melody of my own to represent my first tentative drive out of Indianapolis on an upcoming Arizona road trip, indeed my very first since COVID19 kept this rover home for a year.

But instead of the mere guitar piece I asked for, I was granted the full treatment with a mix of electric lead, electric bass and percussion. The name Highway 9 (Cruising Chords) was chosen by the artist, inspired, he said, by the Springsteen song Born To Run because it seemed to fit. Well it certainly did, to The Boss, US9 represented a way out of Freehold New Jersey where he grew up since it was the main route out of town. But there was more to this story that Kri5 could not know, for 9 years my family lived in Fort Monmouth New Jersey where my father was stationed, a mere bike ride away from the tiny home in nearby Long Branch where in 1975 Bruce wrote all 8 songs on Born To Run to change his life and ended up changing rock and roll.

Sometimes I think there is a cosmic consciousness, then I think luck just finds you if you associate with interesting and talented folks like  Kri5.