Grace Pettis was cruising a lonely stretch of interstate highway between the pitch-black hours of 2 and 3 a.m. Red lights flashed behind her. The law was pulling her over. Just outside Abilene, she got nabbed for speeding.
She was all alone in her Honda Accord. She told the man with the badge that she was a singer-songwriter, heading from one town to the next on tour.
"Well," he said, peering in the window, "you gonna play me a song?"
"Well," she countered, "you gonna write me a ticket?"
Now 28, Pettis chose wisely. She sang "Abilene," which she will no doubt perform Friday night when she returns to Uncle Calvin's Coffeehouse.
"Abilene" underscores Pettis' ability as a songwriter, a talent that in 2011 propelled her to victory in the New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival. The moment she won, she found herself in rare company.
Past winners include Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, John Gorka, Jimmy LaFave and her father, Pierce Pettis. He and his daughter are the only parent-child combo to have won the award.
The officer who pulled her over had no clue about the pedigree of the young woman with flaming red hair. He just wanted to hear a song; she surprised him with "Abilene."
"I pulled out my guitar and sat on the back bumper," she says.
The officer and his partner liked it so much that not only did she not receive a ticket, but the officer's partner asked where he could buy a CD.
"From me!" she said.
"How much does it cost?" he asked, to which she replied, "Fifteen dollars." He handed over a $20 and said, "Keep the change."
Maybe it was the song she picked. Or maybe it was the sad, powerful way she sings its haunting lyrics. As much as any song in her repertoire, which includes two albums and a third in the works, "Abilene" offers a glimpse at Pettis' roots.
She grew up on Lookout Mountain in Alabama, understanding deeply the small-town life. Influenced by her dad, who has written hit songs for Garth Brooks, among others, she also credits her mom with shaping her growth as an artist. Her mother lives in Ireland, where she's a scholar specializing in the study of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce.
Pettis found herself rereading Joyce's Dubliners after writing "Abilene" and realizing she may have been inspired by the story of Eveline, who lived in Dublin but whose feelings of longing and sadness fit the woman in "Abilene" as well as any:
"I'm burning up in this Texas heat/The fire fills me up like I was made of gasoline/There ain't nothin' in this town for a girl like me/But my mama loved the sound/She named me Abilene."
"Obviously, anything you write has a little bit of you in it," Pettis says. "I think a lot of that small-town-girl-wanting-to-get-out feeling probably came from me. I went to high school in a small town in Alabama, in the mountains. When you're there, you look out and all you see are mountains. You're surrounded by mountains. It's kind of like an embrace, but it's also a chokehold. It feels like a forgotten part of the country. It's simultaneously like being able to see everything from where you are while not being seen -- at all."
Pettis moved on. She graduated in 2010 from St. Edward's University in Austin, where she and her husband, Cris Lopez, a youth minister at a Catholic church, now make their home.
After Dallas, she will continue the tour by driving her car to Arkansas, Georgia, Florida and the famous Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, seen often on the city's namesake TV show. She'll be watching the speed limit but will keep her guitar and CDs in the car, just in case.
Twitter: @mgranberry
This is part of an occasional series on a single song composed by a major American songwriter.
Plan your life
Grace Pettis and Brian Pounds will perform Friday night at Uncle Calvin's Coffeehouse, 9555 N. Central Expressway. Doors open at 7:30; show starts at 8. $15 in advance, $18 at the door. 214-363-0044, unclecalvins.org.
This is a YouTube video of Grace Pettis performing "Abilene:"
More from our OneSong archive:
Jackson Browne, "Late for the Sky," Oct. 21, 2015
Leon Bridges, "Coming Home," Nov. 9, 2015
Gretchen Peters, "Idlewild," Nov. 19, 2015
John Gorka, "Flying Red Horse," Dec. 9, 2015
This clip features the great Mike Rhyner and his cohorts on the afternoon drive-time show, The Hardline, on The Ticket (KTCK, 1310 AM, 96.7 FM), raving about One Song:
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