Some Have Entertained Angels is a novel by Warren Samuel Miller about strangers who came to be in the same place at the same time — a remote motel and country music bar during two weeks in November 1975 — where they touch each other’s lives.

In 1975, America is in something like the half-slumber of a Saturday afternoon nap after a rough week. Leisure suits are everywhere. Olivia Newton-John warbles “Have You Never Been Mellow” and Glenn Campbell belts out “Rhinestone Cowboy” on pop and country radio stations, though few people can distinguish between the formats anymore. Bell bottoms are wide, sideburns long, hairdos teased, and whatever sexual inhibitions America once had seem to have dissolved in alcohol.

The meat-packing town of Big Sioux Valley, Iowa would be the sleepiest place in the country were it not for the Great Plains Motel and its GP Lounge. Truckers waiting for their trailers to be loaded with hanging sides of beef, locals eager for good country music, and itinerant salesmen of many different products and services keep the motel and its nightclub lively.

In Some Have Entertained Angels, the dreams and strategies for success that some of the perpetual travelers have collide with the lives of people who don’t expect to be going anywhere any time soon.

The County Line Express comes to the GP Lounge for an open-ended engagement. The band includes an almost-famous Cajun singer who’s hiding from the IRS and his ex-wife’s lawyers; a road-weary drummer who brushed up against the big time in his native California; a bass player from Nashville who lays down a solid groove; and a good-looking, wet-behind-the-ears guitar player who wants to be a songwriter.

Over the first two weeks of November 1975, these people — and others around them — hear and play some excellent music and learn a few lessons about life.

***

Two original songs are featured in the novel …

Ronnie Lee had a regional hit with Cajun Lady in 1959, when he was a young man in rural Louisiana. Regulars at the GP who heard the song in 1959 realize who he is and ask him to play it again.

The guitar player and aspiring songwriter, Carl, has written Living on the Fringe, a song based on his brief experience on the road. Carl wants Ronnie Lee to record the outlaw-country song, as does Ronnie’s manager. There’s a problem, though — Ronnie Lee really is an outlaw, and it would be difficult for him to promote a hit record without being served papers, and possibly arrested.

Fortunately, you can listen to both songs performed by The Considerators without fear of legal action.