Commentary: How a conversation on a train turned into a song about Baltimore

As Gabriel Kahane wrote songs for his 2018 album “Book of Travelers,” he drew from his experiences on a train trip throughout the country. The trip included an hourslong conversation with a young Black man from Baltimore. During the conversation, the young man, who had gone out West to work as a national park trail crew leader, talked about his life and about why he needed to make a trip back home.