Released to celebrate Kronos Quartet’s 30th anniversary, the recording is of Ben Johnston’s arrangement of American composer Harry Partch’s U.S. Highball: A Musical Account of Slim’s Transcontinental Hobo Trip and features singer David Barron.

In September 1941, Harry Partch left California to join the growing American hobo subculture of young men traveling the country in search of work and adventure. Partch traveled to Chicago—mostly by freight train—jotting down snippets of conversations, graffiti, station names, and various reflections in his notebook. These recollections became the basis of U.S. Highball. Kronos’ rendition does not use any of Partch’s three versions of the piece, but rather an arrangement for voice and string quartet made for the group in 1997 by Johnston, a composer who studied and worked with Partch.