One of my first jobs here in Portland (nearly a decade ago) was a wine delivery route that started extremely early in the morning. I was always the first one in the warehouse, loading up the truck and heading out before any of the sales staff arrived. At the time I was obsessed with Springsteen’s bleak narrative album – The Ghost of Tom Joad .   There was a copy of it on cassette tape at the office (along with Is This Real? by the Wipers) and I’d blast it at top volume while I loaded case after case of wine into the truck.  Not exactly great “get up ‘n go” tunes, but I was determined to study these songs – they seemed like a map to somewhere that I wanted to explore. One of the wines that we sold was a Zinfandel with the words “Benito Dusi Ranch” on the label. I read that label over and over, but in my brain it always registered as “Benito’s Dust.”  Eventually, Springsteen’s narrative model mixed with the mis-read word combination and the song “Benito’s Dust” was written.  The basic tracks were recorded during the sessions for Not Exotic in 2002, but the song was left half-finished.  Emil Amos from Holy Sons revisited it with me at his home studio and we finished the track for a split 7 inch release back in 2004.