Calvin Bowden

Voices from a Far Field Calvin Bowden

Eighteen-year-old farm boy, Heck Tennel, vows to become a recording star, buy himself a bottomland farm and find a proper girl to marry. But first, he has to earn enough to pay his sick little brother's medical bills and support his three sisters and crippled dad. But it's the Great Depression, and there are no jobs. When he doesn't take in enough from his Saturday night musicals gigs and his butter and egg route, he takes risks doing other things, like peddling moonshine and making a Bonnie & Clyde-style bank "withdrawal." Those things and saving his friend from being murdered get him into serious trouble with the law. Despite this, he finds a proper girl, and they fall in love and make plans to marry. Their bright hopes quickly fade when her evil, rich aunt whisks her out of town and has him brought up on trumped-up charges. He's forced to flee or be arrested and all his hopes and dreams vanish when he realizes he'll never see his true love again. Years later, his true love's aunt asks him to return home and meet with her lawyer. He fears what awaits him as he contemplates going back home to possibly face the music and deal with the ghosts of his lost dreams.