I love road songs, Bee-dubya-ell, but then again I'm not a professional musician and I never get to go anywhere. The Tom Paxton song, Can't help but wonder where I'm bound, describes people like me in one of the verses -

If you see me passin' by
And you sit and you wonder why
And you wish that you were a rambler too
Nail your shoes to the kitchen floor
Lace them up and bar the door
And thank your stars for the roof that's over you

That's me, sitting in the kitchen with a restless heart, listening to music from far away places, reading travel writers and holding the roof up over my children with both shoulders.

What makes a good road song for me is a sense conveyed of freedom, adventure, experience, rootlessness, restlessness - with just the right touch of wistfulness and melancholy, some small sense of loss or regret, however slight. My list includes Guthrie's Hard Travellin', Little Feat's Willin', and 500 Miles.