Music is Art

Join us to hear from Cece Otto! Cece will discuss (and perform) Music Along American's Highways. In the early days of car travel, the U.S. was criss-crossed with auto trails — an informal network of named roads, marked on telephone poles and the sides of buildings, which motorists relied on to travel from town to town and state to state.

The American highway system grew from these roads, and names like the Lincoln Highway, the Jefferson Highway and the Yellowstone Trail — not to mention their later descendent, Route 66 — were synonymous with America’s pioneering spirit in the technological 20th century. The story of America is in its roads, and they provide a fascinating lens through which to look at the evolution of popular music.

An American Songline began on the Lincoln Highway, America’s oldest transcontinental route, and since then, Cece has continued to create musical journeys down these vanishing highways, performing along or near them — often in venues dating back to the auto trails era — and keeping their stories alive through the songs enjoyed by travelers of generations past. 

This activity was supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the Library Services and Technology Grant, and the Oklahoma Department of Libraries.