Anybody else getting ready for the big Mid-America Trucking Show next month? It's March 26-28 at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville, as per usual, and we'll be covering all manner of the various goings-on at the event. A big undertaking, that, from set-up to roll-out of the custom-truck show in the Paul K. Young Memorial competition to federal and state regulatory panels, trucking-business discussions and all the rest happening at the huge event.
Yet we’ve got help from a bit of a not-so-secret weapon who this year happens to be an integral part of the official MATS programming.
He’s the player of and songwriter behind much of the music you hear under the voices on Overdrive Radio week-in-week-out, the man we’ve featured on the podcast way too many times to count and whom regular readers will also know from his stories and tall tales, interviews, oral histories of OTR drivers of all stripes, and so much more all published under the Overdrive Extra banner
That writer, that performer, that veritable sage of the road, "Long Haul Paul" Marhoefer, will take the stage alongside other acts during the Friday night concert at MATS this year. He’s got a couple of records upcoming, too, set for release in the coming weeks:
- One is archival from 1994, previously unreleased material from an embryonic stage of LHP's evolution as a songwriter he's calling "1994: The Lost Tapes."
- Then "The After Party Sessions" features live recordings from night shows at various trucking events over the last several years, most held in the custom-outfitted venue trailer of Brandon Carpenter that is the Old Iron Bar.
Keep an eye on Long Haul Paul's music website and his profile on the the streaming platforms through the next month for debut of the full record. Hear parts of it in this week's edition of Overdrive Radio here.
Off the top of the podcast, a bit of a taste of that live record via a track that is the very first of Marhoefer’s I ever heard here, when Marhoefer competed in Overdrive’s Trucker Talent Search music competition more than 10 years ago now:
Marhoefer would go on to place second that year. And his star rose so quickly among owner-operators and drivers in the aftermath that he never competed again -- no doubt in my mind he'd have won it had he.
He became an encouraging fixture in performances around the competitors after that, alongside copious writing and reporting he’s done for Overdrive since. All of it shines with a clear desire to tell the stories of others with care, with faith to their voices and no small sense of empathy for the struggles we all endure.
LHP brings all of that to his songwriting as well. He’s endured plenty himself in life and trucking, as he memorably chronicled as host of our Over the Road podcast back in 2020, which saw air across the nation in partnership with the Radiotopia podcast network.
Don’t miss his performance at MATS, yet if that show’s just not in the cards for you this year, know that he’ll be out at a variety of other events throughout the year, though somewhat limited compared to prior years given his father, near Madison, Wisconsin, has needed home care that he and his siblings and other family members have been coordinating. Hear just where he's scheduled as yet in the podcast.
And know that the "long haul" in LHP remains a reality for Marhoefer, even if he does call his trucking career at this stage a kind of semi-retirement. He still hauls for Ohio-headquartered Moeller Trucking and lives with his wife, Denise, in Losantville, Indiana, the pair an undisputed force in trucking music and culture.
Trace through his history and some of the tracks from both the new records, as well as 2023 and 2024’s “Legends of the Lost Highway” and “Floodwaters and Fires,” respectively.
Hope to see you at MATS.
As mentioned in the podcast:
- Marhoefer's chronicle of a near-death encounter with a set of runaway duals in 2023.
- His interview marking 50 years in trucking radio for Dave Nemo, part of Marhoefer's long-running "Faces of the Road" series for Overdrive.
More with Marhoefer at the head of our Music to Truck By playlist this week:
[Related: Documenting the 'Faces of the Road' with Long Haul Paul]
