Train I Ride

Well. Got a super keen mix for all y'all today.

We're off for a swell vacation this weekend, and through next week. You won't even notice we're gone, I 'spect. Off to the great city of Lincoln, Nebraska for valuable in-law time.

And we're takin' the train to get there. The venerable and vulnerable Amtrak, no less, due to Mrs. Mountain's aversion to modes of transportation more airborne. That's ok, though, cuz we think trains are real swell.

There's a romance to trains that is disappearing from the American landscape (in Europe, we're told, the train is still a viable and useful means of transportation). In many ways, the train is our last connection to the "go west young man" mentality, the covered wagon having gone the way of, well, the covered wagon. American folklore is filled with the mythology of the train, its conductors and engineers, the hobos, and the railyard bulls who chased them. When I think of trains I think of Charlie Chaplin in The Great Train Robbery. I think of Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest. James T. West and Artemus Gordon in The Wild Wild West. Boxcar Willie and Harry McClintock. "Midnight Special" and "Mystery Train". The whistle and distant clack, approaching then fading.

The train song holds a special place in the Big Rock Candy Mountain pantheon (just under the Truckin' Song, naturally).

Please, then, enjoy the following train mix, made especially...for you. See ya in a week or so.

As always, mp3 of the mix follows the track listing.

Choo choo ch'boogie.


Big Rock Candy Railroad Depot

1. I've Got A Thing About Trains (Johnny Cash)
2. The Golden Rocket (Hank Snow)
3. Mystery Train (Junior Parker)
4. Mean Ol' Train (Papa Lightfoot)
5. Lonesome Train (Johnny Burnette)
6. Black Diamond Express Train To Hell Part 1 (John Schooley)
7. Railroad Lady (Lefty Frizzell)
8. Waitin' For A Train (Merle Haggard)
9. Calling Trains (Clothesline Revival)
10. Roll Roll Train (Hasil Adkins)
11. This Train (Elder Samuel Patterson)
12. Rock Island Line (Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee)
13. Big Freight Train Carry Me Home (Boxcar Willie)
14. Engine Engine Number Nine (Roger Miller)
15. Train Whistle Nightmare (Joe "Cannonball" Lewis)
16. Ride That Train (Oblivians with Mr. Quintron)
17. Train Song (Split Lip Rayfield)
18. Midnight Special (Leadbelly)
19. Night Train To Memphis (Bobby Hebb)
20. High-Ballin' Daddy (Ann Jones)
21. Railroad Tracks (Juke Boy Bonner)
22. Slow Train (Staple Singers)
23. Railroad Bum (Jim Reeves)
24. Hobo Blues (Doctor Ross)
25. Daddy Was A Hobo (Skinny McGhee)
26. Special Stream Line (Bukka White)
27. Smokestack Lightning (Howlin' Wolf)
28. Night Train (James Brown)
29. Railroad (Lee Hazlewood)
30. Slow Train Through Georgia (Norman Blake)
31. Morning Train (Rev. Charlie Jackson)
32. Hallelujah I'm A Bum (Harry McClintock)

Big Rock Candy Mountain Railroad Depot (mp3)

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