“The title came from a National Geographic article called “Where Can the Wolf Survive?” or something like that. It was this whole thing about wolves being misinterpreted. And the fact they were getting pushed out of North America. We started getting these ideas about drawing a parallel between that and American culture. In the same issue there was a thing about the cities pushing out the smaller people, the smaller beings, and they had a picture of this one guy thumbing a ride down the road with a suitcase and a dog, all this visual imagery that suggested a parallel with the wolf story. Well, it was like a hopeful sort of thing. It is a song about hope.”Louie Perez (281)

“This song has the same sort of feel to it [as Will the Wolf Survive? – Ed] There’s all this dark imagery, but ultimately it talks about survivors; people bouncing back from the worst sort of things that could happen to them. I guess that song was specifically about America.”Louie Perez (281)

“”Peace” was a dream. We were on the road and I had this dream of seeing Dave [David Hidalgo – Ed] alone on stage on a stool playing the guitar. And I could remember some of the lyrics he sang. I told Dave about it. And I was trying to think how it went and I could remember a couple of the verses. I kind of sang the melody to him.”Louie Perez (282)

“Dave first played it on a 12 string and it sounded almost African. And I had this idea about writing something about indigenous people who were displaced by the wars in Central America and how they had gone back to reclaim their homeland. I told Dave I had this idea about people traveling back home again. So I wrote the lyric based on that idea of a husband and wife who are heading down that road back home and it’s a long walk. It talks about “the stones are hard on the endless road”.”Louie Perez (283)

“This was sparked by a story by a Southern writer named Reese Dejapancake who took his life when he was 26 years old. He had one story with the character Reva, who is a little bit disenfranchised, desperate. One of the American dreams unfulfilled kind of things. A lot of people have read into that song and felt that it was about abuse. I tried to tie in a dysfunctional relationship. I saw the male character as an alcoholic. I’ve been in recovery myself for four years so I went with that.”Louie Perez (284)