Various – Classic Railroad Songs
I guess if you were born before the Industrial Revolution, the train actually had somewhat of an impact on you. If you were born anywhere in the latter half of the 20th century, the train was probably something granddad spoke about over a corncob pipe and a nip of rye: good folklore, but not much more. Frankly, not too many people born after 1950 can say that they have actually ridden a train. So why a musical salute to trains? Well, thars good stories in them locomotives, believe you me!
Rounder Records probably came up with this compilation because theyve issued almost a third of the tracks previously from artists already signed to their label. Sure, it was a marketing concept (not unlike New Crest toothpaste …now in a pump!) but its a damn good improvement because it works as a concept as well as a compilation.
Mixing true American roots music (country, hillbilly, blues, rockabilly, folk and more) to tell the story of the train may not be a novel concept, but it does bring freshness to the idea. For every rockabilly song about the majesty of a train (Sleepy LaBeefs Mystery Train), there is a banana bread and brown rice folk tune about how the younguns have never seen a train (Utah Phillips Daddy Whats A Train?). This diversity is a saving grace, simply because if you dont like one tune (in my case, Steve Good_mans City Of New Orleans), theres another one comin round the bend (Hugh Moffatts Slow Moving Freight Train) that will overshadow it.
Boasting a pretty solid lineup of classic country artists (including Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff, Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family), Classic Railroad Songs paints a pretty good mental picture of Americas (waning) interest in the train. More a history lesson than a guide, American legends such as the real-life speed demon Casey Jones (rendered by Cash) are immortalized musically alongside the actual trains that made their mark, such as the Wabash Cannonball (Acuff), the Orange Blossom Special (Johnson Mountain Boys) and the Red Ball to Natchez (Del_more Brothers with Wayne Raney).
The most satisfying aspect of this set is that it recalls a bygone era mostly lost on a generation brought up on the internet, cellular phones and home theaters. This set conjures up the lost American iconography of the West, the bygone era of word-of-mouth freedom, and the simple guise of escaping from ones past. In this day and age, thats welcome.