For each Beyond the Clock season, we invite a Resident Artist to capture high-level themes in a creative format. In 2025, we worked with South Dakota-based writer and musician, Eliza Blue.
As a Resident Artist, Eliza Blue wrote and produced an album of songs based on conversations with guests we featured at each Beyond the Clock podcast and virtual event.
Listen and download the album of songs,"Slow Rivering Home," highlighting stories from five rural artists across the country, BELOW!
"Slow Rivering Home" is a collection of songs by Eliza Blue inspired by conversations with rural arts and cultural workers as part of DoPT's 2025 Beyond The Clock series in partnership with Rural Assembly and Voices for Rural Resilience.
All songs written, performed, and produced by Eliza Blue based on conversations with Lacy Hale, Nancy X. Valentine, Siricasso Garcia, Viktor le. Ewing Givens, and Kyle Meseth (KDAWG). "Kyle's Song" includes samples from KDAWG's 'Promised Land.' Viktor's ancestors should also be credited for musing his words, which were used to compose 'Viktor's Song.'
About the 2025 Beyond the Clock resident Artist: eliza blue
Eliza Blue is a writer, folk musician, and rancher living on the short grass prairie of western Dakota. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, and NPR’s ‘All Songs Considered.’ 19 different print publications carry her weekly column about life on the prairie, and she has written and produced seasonal audio ‘postcards’ from her ranch for South Dakota Public Broadcasting and Prairie Public Radio.
Her first book, Accidental Rancher, was chosen as the Siouxland One Book 2023. Her second book, Little Pasture on the Prairie, was released by the South Dakota Historical Society Press in June 2024. Eliza hosted and produced a Midwest Emmy-nominated show celebrating rural art and culture for PBS called ‘Wish You Were Here with Eliza Blue’ for three seasons, and she is the founder and director of the Kithship Collective, an organization devoted to innovative, ecosystem-specific storytelling.
Learn more about Eliza Blue at: www.elizablue.net