Main content

Passing Dreams

4 Extra Debut. Will Beeley was once an anxious romantic and a smooth-voiced folk singer. But now he's a truck driver - how did he get here?

A portrait of singer, songwriter and truck driver Will Beeley.

The myth of the road is deeply rooted in America – it's the thing that delivers escape, promises freedom, fuels new hopes and, once upon a time at least, thoughts of a new nation. And it provides its own opening onto the vastness and variety of the country today.

The distances can be dizzying. And these days Will Beeley spends more time on the road than he does at home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a city in the desert, with Route 66 running through its heart.

In another life Will Beeley was a musician – a singer and songwriter – an anxious romantic at the end of the 1960s and a smooth-voiced folkie ten years later. He played gig after gig, made records and, for a while at least, hoped for the big time.

But now, like a different road taken, a different stop along the way, he spends his life behind the wheel of a hulking truck, sharing the driving with his wife, as the highway and the days blur by.

It's a unique vantage point. And as America spools past outside, framed by the huge windscreen, does he – like all of us now and then – think of times gone by, of unfinished business, of what might have been? Or is his attention fixed ahead on the road as it rolls towards him, flowing beneath his wheels?

Producer: Martin Williams

First broadcast on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4 in September 2017.

Available now

30 minutes

On radio

Thursday 10:30
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4 Extra

Music Played

  • Will Beeley

    Rainy Sundays

    • Passing Dream.
    • Tompkins Square.
    • TSQ 5418.

  • Will Beeley

    Rainy Sundays

    • Passing Dream.
    • Tompkins Square.
    • TSQ 5418.

  • Will Beeley

    Carol

    • Gallivantin'.
    • Tomkins Square.
    • TSQ 5401.

  • Will Beeley

    Seasons of Never

    • Gallivantin'.
    • Tomkins Square.
    • TSQ 5401.

  • Will Beeley

    Easter Sunday Song

    • Gallivantin'.
    • Tomkins Square.
    • TSQ 5401.

  • Will Beeley

    Sailin' With You

    • Passing Dream.
    • Tompkins Square.
    • TSQ 5418.

  • Will Beeley

    I Can't Pretend Much Longer

    • Passing Dream.
    • Tompkins Square.
    • TSQ 5418.

  • Will Beeley

    The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½less Ain't Just Hobos Anymore

  • Will Beeley

    Rainy Sundays

    • Passing Dream.
    • Tompkins Square.
    • TSQ 5418.

Broadcasts

  • Tue 26 Sep 2017 11:30
    ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4
  • Sat 14 Oct 2017 15:30
    ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4
  • Thursday 10:30
    ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4 Extra
  • Thursday 16:30
    ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4 Extra
  • Friday 00:30
    ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4 Extra