03.05.07

Meet me at the station

Posted in back catalogue, cricket spazzes, random, stephen simmons, steve earle, todd snider - March 5th, 2007 at 7:46 pm by Cricket

It’s strange how, in the modern day of air and car travel, the folkloric power of trains seems not to have diminished at all. It’s true I can get in my car and drive nearly anywhere in the country, yet the idea of hopping a train seems to hold more fanciful notions of freedom and escape from the everyday. [It’s because it is a myth, that’s why, exactly.—Mimi] But there’s more to it than that. There’s a wistful, lonesome sound of far-off train whistles which promise escape that is somehow out of reach. The sound now contains more nostalgia than ever before, though trains are still prevalent all over the world.

Where we live, you can hear the trains everyday, all the time. Though more at night when they aren’t masked by road traffic noise and the television or the iPod. Often the sound will wake me up in the night, which isn’t bothersome at all. It’s more like a reminder of the time and place I’m in. The rattle-hum of freight trains over the tracks sound like home. When I was little, the trains ran right along the far side of the field behind my grandparents’ farm. You could hear them coming when they were miles away and even miles past you could still sense the train when the whistle was too far to hear. I’m sure there’re many people who grew up hearing trains to the point where they hardly notice them, [Like me, for instance, the tracks ran along the bluffs and curved along the coast where I grew up a couple blocks down from my house.—Mimi] but pulled away from them would come to think of it (unconsciously) as a cradle sound, something calming.

In the last 100+ years, trains have driven imaginations in all different directions, in fiction and film and especially music. Train songs seem to exist in all genres of music. I’m going to rec my favorites, sticking (mostly) to the country/folk/bluegrass/alt-country realm. I bet you already know all these songs. Maybe this is a reminder to listen to songs you’ve lost, or perhaps you’ll find something new. This is the barest surface scratch of train songs, but when I think of them, these are the first that come to mind.

Uncle Tupelo - “Train” (from No Depression)
This is a war song as much as it’s train song. Jay Farrar uses the visual of the train to set you in small town America where boys are being dragged off to war. It’s quintessentially American, and pretty brilliant, even for Farrar.

Johnny Cash – “Wreck of the Old 97″ (from The Legend)
This song has been covered by nearly everyone since Vernon Dalhart first recorded it in the 20s. It’s based on the wreck of real train, and is based, I believe, on an older, traditional Irish ballad (I’m sure I read that in book somewhere, but the internet isn’t producing the links I’d hoped for). Historically interesting because it was the first time song lyrics were involved in major copyright suit, as several people claimed to have written it. The last verse always seemed like some tacked morality lesson, but it’s doesn’t soften my enjoyment of the song. I could write an entire essay on the history of this song, but it’s all been said elsewhere and I’d probably start to bore myself. I picked Mr. Cash’s version to include here because currently I love it best, but I think the Hank Snow version is equally as famous, though both have shortened the lyrics from the original. [Oh, Johnny, Johnny, how much I love you! Just hearing him cue up on the iTunes makes me nostalgic and homesick just in a general way.—Mimi]

Steve Earle – “Texas Eagle” (from The Mountain)
A bluegrass styled song, performed with The Del McCoury Band. Right off, the typically Earle intro of him randomly talking to no one and everyone, saying: “You gotta put your hat on, boy. You wanna be in the band, you have to put your hat on,” just kills me. Oh ♥Steve♥. Then the song rides in with hard guitar strum like trains coming at ya and spins into fiddle and mandolin, twanging you through some time past, but not so distant that you don’t remember it, but you feel a little bit of longing for it. Bonus points for having a “granddaddy” reference. [You gotta put your hat on, boy! This is my favorite song off this album. This is a head swaying back-and-forth tune. This is also a stealthy political song, listen up.—Mimi]

Neko Case – “Train From Kansas City” (from The Tigers Have Spoken)
This cover of the Shangri-Las’ song is perfectly suited to Neko’s voice. She makes the song much more melancholy and thoughtful than I remember the original song being. The cover also retains a 60s feel while being very much the folky-country of the Sadies (backing Neko up here).

The Stanley Brothers – “Train 45″ (from Complete Starday and King Instrumentals)
There’s a call and response of sorts in the beginning of this, everyone calling out where they are taking the train to (I assume home for each other them, given the places they list). [Amusingly, also, the train is leaving from Cincitucky. Where else would people going home to the hills be leaving from?—Mimi] The fiddle playing here is what wins me over. Obviously, it’s an old-time song, and one that manages to effectively tell the story without lyrics. You can hear the train winding through the hills and slowing down in the station through each instrument as it’s played.

Hank Williams – “(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle” (from Gold)
I think the Johnny Cash version of this song may have actually surpassed the Hank Williams in popularity. Shocking, I know, but I swear I never hear old daddy Hank singing it anywhere anymore. A classic bit of tragedy, boys getting in trouble and hearing the whistle blowin’ while they waste away in jail. A poignant bit about how much the sound of trains means freedom.

Guy Clark – “Texas, 1947″ (from Keepers)
This song manages to capture the childhood fascination with trains (and crushing nickels on the tracks!) and the adult nostalgia about them. Guy says it’s about the first time he saw a streamlined train, the whole town came out to watch it go by. The harmonies are really spectacular, and train theme aside, I think this actually one of Guy’s best songs.

The Delmore Brothers - “Red Ball to Natchez” (from Classic Railroad Songs, Vol. 2: Mystery Train)
This song is comforting in its nearly trite “taking the train home to my girl” theme. It’s a gleeful number about the happy hobo, an archetype that has definitely fallen off in the last 50 years. [Because of the rise in awareness that homelessness is not a happy-go-lucky state of unfettered freedom but rather a social pestilence, perhaps? My love of “Big Rock Candy Mountain notwithstanding.—Mimi] I think the idea of the ramblin’ man who goes off and does what ever he does ’til he finally comes home to settle down was at it’s peak with train stories in the early part of the last century. The Delmore Brothers make it a jolly story without angst or sadness.

Stephen Simmons – “Next Stop Redemption” (from Drink Ring Jesus)
I nearly swooned the first time I heard this song. Salvation and train metaphors together? Oh, be still my heart! Stephen croons out the tale of the train that takes all sinners through the night, no town in sight, that finally heads to the end—Hell or salvation. [He’s really beyond awesome.—Mimi] [Yeah, this song makes me feel a little swoony. I think it's my favorite of the bunch.—Daisy]

Sleepy LaBeef – “Mystery Train” (from Rockin Decade)
Surely Elvis’ version is the most famous of all, but Sleepy kicks up the rockabilly just enough to make the song even more enjoyable. Another song of the train back home to the girl, this one is nearly danceable with its sense of joy, though both Sleepy LaBeef and Elvis throw in a little angst to the vocal delivery. [Yeah, I think he’s mimicking Elvis, actually.—Mimi] The origin of some of the lyrics of this song is mired in almost as much controversy as “Wreck of the Old 97.” The version here is credited to Junior Parker and Sam Phillips. The “mystery” in the title probably refers to whatever original source they gacked the song from. [Probably written by a black person.—Mimi]

The Waifs – “Crazy Train” (from A Brief History…)
What I particularly love about this is how the music and lyrics both seem to belong in some bygone era, and yet the singers’ voices, while not unsuited to the music, sound like they pulled song out of some ancient train barn and sped it right up into the present. There’s an old-timey, bluesy sort of feeling to the track, that captures the essence of old time, but is surely a brand new song. [Isn’t this a Black Sabbath song?—Mimi] [I'm shocked you would even know that. No, same title, different song.—Cric]

Kinky Friedman – “Silver Eagle Express” (from Sold American)
Though generally I associate Kinky with insane books, wacky politics, and other amusements, he really is a fantastic country musician. [Now, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here. He’s a gimmicky song writer mainly.—Mimi] [But where does gimmicky fit best but in country music?—Cricket] This song manages to perfectly encapsulate the train themes of departure and forgetfulness. Musically, it’s subtly full of twangy steel and train sounds (well, subtle until the end). Lyrically it’s really much more than I would ever expect. All in all a beautiful country song, made more so by the train theme. [Yeah, I’m surprised he has a song that doesn’t make me think of Hee-Haw and midgets tying balloon animals, frankly.—Mimi]

Alison Krauss – “Steel Rails” (from I’ve Got That Old Feeling)
The theme of escape is heavy here. She sings about looking ahead to keep from remembering the past with shout outs to hobos. The visual of the train tracks ribboning through the sunny hills is perfect. This actually sounds almost like a Dolly Parton song to me, and by that I mean it’s excellent. [Yeah, it sounds like a Dolly track, for reals.—Mimi] [I thought Dolly as well the first time I heard it.—Daisy] I do believe this was one of the first songs to chart for Miss Krauss, and deservedly so.

Todd Snider – “Play a Train Song” (from East Nashville Skyline)
I listen to this song so often it borders on pathological. Indeed, it was sort of the inspiration for this post, since it’s stuck in my head all the time and I started thinking about what other train songs I like to play. Even though this isn’t literally a train song, only metaphorically, as with all Todd’s songs it’s the not just the brilliantly clever lyrics, but the delivery that sells it. This particular song tugs at my heart in a nearly inexplicable way. There’s a sense of loss here, but more about remembering the good in lost loved, rather than mourning, but all somehow darkly tied to drugs and tinge of sadness. [Really, a Todd Snider song about substance abuse? He rules. I think he might shop at the Kroger up the street, too.—Mimi] [Stalkerific! –Daisy]

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