Benson Pick Up Steam with “Lover of the Road”

“Lover of the Road” finds mandolinist Wayne Benson and banjoist Kristin Scott Benson, performing together as Benson, collaborating with former Steep Canyon Rangers frontman Woody Platt on a restless, emotionally charged track written by songwriter Grant Williams. It is framed as a lament from a traveler pulled between the lure of the road and the longing for home.

Williams, a longtime friend of Kristin Benson, wrote the song as a reflection on the tension between wanderlust and domestic contentment. “This song was what I imagined it would be like if those two loves traded places in priority in my heart,” he explains.

Wayne Benson first encountered Williams’s songwriting two decades ago during an early demo session. “He’s an eclectic writer,” Benson notes, “and he’s developed a great ear for writing in a bluegrass idiom. We try to match songs with the right voices, and Woody was a natural fit for this one.”

Kristin Benson echoes that sentiment, praising Platt’s delivery: “His vocal captures that haunting, nagging feeling of trying to maintain relationships while living life on the road.”

That feeling is evident from the song’s opening, where Platt’s voice, accompanied only by Cody Kilby’s guitar, sets the tone:

100 miles of Tennessee and baby, you are on my mind
You feel just like home to me, and I’ve been gone too long this time…

As the chorus unfolds, Keep on rolling over now, you worn-out weary wheels, the full band enters, propelling the track forward. Kilby, along with the Bensons and bassist Mickey Harris, delivers driving instrumental solos that sustain the song’s momentum to the end.

Platt, reflecting on the collaboration, adds: “I’ve long admired Kristin and Wayne for both their individual artistry and their contributions to bluegrass as a duo. It was an honor to record this song with them.”