Murmur Trestle

The back cover of R.E.M.’s influential 1983 album Murmur famously features an image of the wooden Trail Creek Trestle. Over time the aging nineteenth-century train trestle in Athens, Georgia, became known as, simply, the ＂Murmur Trestle,＂ a global pilgrimage site for fans of the band. Removed in 2021 to make way for a pedestrian bridge and bike path, the trestle has been captured for the ages in this new collection of photographs by Jason Thrasher.

Thrasher spent six years focusing his lens on an immersive exploration of the Murmur Trestle, photographing it within its changing natural environment. His contemplative images encourage readers to engage in a visual meditation, urging them to closely observe and appreciate the details of the decaying subject. Thrasher’s keen eye and patient observation reveal the wonders of details large and small and the harmonious interplay between wood, light, nature, and the seasons.

Together with a foreword by Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers and ＂Reason to Rot,＂ an original poem by MacArthur Fellow J. Drew Lanham, these images speak to the trestle’s significance in the community, the region, and the world. Murmur Trestle encourages wanderers to find solace in the gentle rhythm of nature through the passage of time and to embark on personal journeys of introspection and connection with the world around us.

JASON THRASHER is an artist and professional photographer, covering the Southeast’s rich and varied music scene, including portraits of the Drive-By Truckers, Guided by Voices, R.E.M., OutKast, and Widespread Panic. His photographs have been published in Rolling Stone, Billboard, New York Magazine, and the New York Times. His work is in the permanent collections of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Music City San Francisco Museum, and the Georgia Museum of Art. He is also the author of Athens Potluck, a book of photography and personal essays about the Athens music scene that won the Georgia Author of the Year Award. He lives in Athens, Georgia, where he owns the Ace/Francisco Gallery with his wife and business partner, Beth Hall Thrasher.