Locust Street- Kody/Kat

Kat Hasty grew up here in Midland, Texas.

Kody West came up in Denton.

Different corners of the same damn state, and somehow both roads lead back to a Locust Street.

I remember growing up in Midland—every couple of years, me and my cousins would find those brittle little shells clinging to the dirt and fence posts. The locusts had crawled up out of their holes, split themselves open, grew wings, and disappeared. We didn’t know it then, but we were watchin’ change happen in real time.

My cousin’s old home place ain’t even there anymore. Bulldozed. Scraped clean. Somebody put up a doctor’s office where we used to run around barefoot, swattin’ bugs and thinkin’ the world would always look the same.

This new song, “Locust Street,” rings of that kind of change.

Last chances.

Things you don’t realize are memories until they’re already gone.

The places that raised you, the versions of yourself that don’t come back, and the quiet understanding that time doesn’t ask permission—it just sheds its skin and flies on.

Some songs don’t just play.

They remind you where you came from—and what didn’t make the trip with you.

—Pancho’s Picks

Blood

I recently watched the newly released official music video for the Kaitlin Butts song, “Blood”. A song about alcoholism and narcissistic personalities. I

The song really hits close to home for me. I’m over 5000 days sober now but I am still in the midst of realizing just how sick I was. It has taken me years to make some of the amends for the damage I caused others. On the flip side I have found myself in bad relationships and break-ups that left me wounded from the inside out.

Butts says she spends time watching the world around her. When she sees her friends and family go through trials and tribulations she writes about it and it brings her some sort of peace.

This is a cruel world we live in. Kindness and laughter is definitely the best medicine. I am grateful for someone like Kaitlin Butts who can use her words and paint the picture of something we have all gone through.

I know from my own experience that life can and will get better. It’s how we choose to view it and live in it. A change can and will happen. We all have the power within us to choose.

Pancho.