For the next 30 days, I’ll be taking the #AprilAcrossAmerica challenge, picking one song a day as I make my way across the country and across genres at the same time.

Day 16: A rompin’ whiskey bar somewhere in Alabama

I’m running into the whiskey bar and stumbling out w/Jim, Ray, Robby and John. What a trip. What a mindblowing debut album. Such a powerful clash of rock, blues and psychedelia. “Twentieth Century Fox”, “Back Door Man”, “Soul Kitchen”, “Break On Through”, “Back Door Man”, “Crystal Ship”, “The End”, “Light My Fire”, every track is a classic. For obvious reasons, I’m going with their cover of “Alabama Song” today.

Listening to the song, we enter the whiskey bar. But this bar feels different. Spearheaded by Morrison’s vocals and Ray’s spritely keyboard flourishes, it feels like we stepped into a freak circus, lost in a drunken haze with these blues rock legends. “Alabama Song” is a perfect cover selection that seems to fit perfectly in the #5 slot on the record and is resolutely 100% Doors in its stylings. My only complaint of the song is that it ends at around three minutes. It seemed ripe for an epic “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”-length rendition.