Rick Penta was rock music–obsessed practically since birth. His 1977 record Hit the Road, is a DIY heartland anthem for all small-town dreamers and starry-eyed drifters. Recorded in Peninsula, Ohio—just a stone’s throw from his hometown of Akron—while Penta was still in his late teens, his self-released debut pieces wide-eyed ambition and homespun intuition into a portrait of an unassumingly legendary Buckeye romantic. The songs on Hit the Road gave concrete shape to years of songwriting and garage-band adventures spent under the heavy influence of idols such as George Harrison, Ian Hunter, and Electric Light Orchestra (close listeners will detect an endearing British drawl lacing Penta’s vocals throughout the record).