[Cover photo credit to Patrick Fraser]
Singer-songwriter Doug Levitt has shared his new single “40 West,” which is slated to appear on his forthcoming debut album Edge of Everywhere, out May 12th, 2022. The songs on Levitt’s album are drawn from true stories he collected from people he met riding Greyhound buses and this song tells the tale of a mother who gave up her dreams of being in the Air Force to raise her son, touching on the sacrifices that parents make out of love. Levitt will be joining Laura Cantrell on a U.K. tour this summer.
Levitt explains:
‘40 West’ is a song about a woman who I met because she was picking up a rig to drive it back to the Gulf Coast. Now in her early 60s, Susie told me how she initially had joined the Air Force because it was the only one of the armed forces that would allow a woman to be an MP, military police. ‘I joined the Air Force to see the world,’ it turns out she said, ‘I got about an hour away.’ But she then had a son and she’d said, ‘He needed me more than the Air Force needed me.’
Produced by multiple Grammy Award-winner Trina Shoemaker (Brandi Carlile, Josh Ritter, Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris), Levitt’s album chronicles his ongoing Greyhound bus journey over the last decade, traveling over 120,000 miles to date, sharing stories of folks he’s met through song.
In March, Levitt brought the stories from Edge of Everywhere to life at New York City’s Lincoln Center, where he launched his new partnership with Guitars for Vets. Proceeds from the show along with future tour dates and sales from the album will benefit the organization, which provides guitars for veterans and teaches them how to play. Levitt also recently performed at the men’s and women’s prisons in Attica, NY, which was filmed for an upcoming BBC TV and radio documentary (the second in a series).
U.K. Tour Dates Supporting Laura Cantrell
June 23 – Leeds, England – Brudenell Social Club
June 26 – Wavendon, England – The Stables
June 27 – Sunderland, England – The Fire Station
June 28 – Glasgow, Scotland – Saint Luke’s
June 29 – Hebden Bridge, England – Trades Club
June 30 – London, England – Union Chapel
July 3 – Birmingham, England – Kitchen Garden Cafe
July 4 – Nottingham, England – The Old Cold Store
July 5 – Manchester, England – Night & Day Cafe
July 6 – Hassocks, England – Mid Sussex Music Hall
July 7 – Twyford, England – St Mary’s Church
July 9 – Bristol, England – Hen and Chicken Southville
July 10 – Oxford, England – Wesley Memorial Methodist Church
