Highway 61 (Special Edition)

I’ll admit, I approached *Highway 61* skeptical of yet another ‘young artist finds their voice’ story—but within minutes, the narration’s scrappy energy hooked me. The unnamed narrator (who sounds like they’ve logged as many hours in dive bars as Iris has) delivers the text with a mix of wry humor and barely contained excitement, especially during the book’s more chaotic moments (like the disastrous first tour where the van’s AC died in the Arizona heat). It’s a performance that feels *lived in*, not just read. The book’s strength lies in its specifics: the way Iris describes the physical exhaustion of recording all night, or the surreal disconnect of watching your own song blow up on TikTok while you’re still working a day job. That said, the pacing stumbles in the middle—some tangents about early collaborator drama drag, and the audio production occasionally suffers from uneven volume levels (a few interview clips are nearly inaudible). But these flaws oddly *fit* the DIY ethos. The *Special Edition*’s bonus tracks—raw demos and Iris��s off-the-cuff reflections—are the real gem, offering a rarity in music memoirs: not just the *story* of creation, but the *sound* of it. If you’ve ever been the weird kid with a BandLab account and big dreams, this one’s for you.