"Continental Divide" performed by Jonathan Rundman and band

Here's a YouTube clip of one of my favorite original songs, "Continental Divide." John Kerns (bass), Troy Alexander (drums), and I performed this back in August at The Beat Coffeehouse in Uptown, Minneapolis, MN. I'm really pleased with our performance.

This peppy little number was co-written by me and my cousin Bruce Rundman back in the Summer of 1996. We were playing at a convention at Finlandia University in Hancock, MI (the birthplace of both of us) and we stayed up late one night and wrote the song. Bruce had the title and concept, inspired by his internship in North Dakota where he spent some time serving as the late-shift chaplain at the State psychiatric hospital. We loaded the lyrics with sneaky references...for example, the "Delco Radio" and the "four-door Buick" are shout-outs to our Grandpa Rundman who drove that car. And I love the random mention of Baltimore!

I was searching Google Images on the continental divide when I was surprised to find a photo of the actual road sign we describe in the song, with the same elevation number: "standing here at 1490"

The recording that appears on my Best of the 20th Century album is one of my favorite recorded moments as well. In August of 2000, right after the release of the Sound Theology album, I traveled back to Upper Michigan with my Sony Minidisc 4-track recorder, and captured my brother Tim playing the drum part in Ishpeming, and I drove up to South Range to get Bruce's vocal. Later I added harmony vocals and electric guitar, and much later in about 2005 I had John Kerns play bass. It's a simple, but hard rocking recording, and I never get tired of listening to it.

CONTINENTAL DIVIDE

500 miles from line to line
a thousand weather vanes
i think i've seen this place before
northern central plains
long nights at the hospital
long days out of touch
never thought she'd lie to me
never thought i'd lose so much

at the continental divide
east and west collide
and every road i tried led to somewhere
now i know she lied
and still i can't decide
at the continental divide going nowhere

it's a long way to baltimore
and straight down a quarter mile
i could call there for advice
but i never dial
stading here at 1490 i expected more
but all i got was endless grain
and nothing more than poor

i don't even think about her
i don't even care
out here in this nothingland
another mile square
i got a delco radio
i use to keep me sane
i got a four-door buick
in the open outside lane