A couple of weeks ago Al wandered into The Shed loaded up with a song he called Train.
Al writes some mean bluesy stuff, and we know that trains are iconic in the blues idiom.
Trains were often the only way to escape the harsh reality of life in the South of the USA. They were often times the ticket to the Promised Land.
The railroads were also a major source of work at the time of emancipation.
As early as 1854, the Rock Island Line, a line featured in many early blues songs, ran trains from the Delta all the way up to Chicago. Many a famous blues player jumped aboard that line.
As such, railroads were a logical subject matter for cotton field chants and gospel songs.
The legendary clandestine escape route to the North for Southern slaves was called ‘The Underground Railway’. The people who helped the fleeing slaves en route were called ‘conductors', while the places they hid in, barns or cellars, were known as 'stations'. Some spirituals were used as codes to indicate that a journey was preparing start.
So to the litany of railroad songs by artists including Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy, Otis Rush, Ella Fitzgerald and Elvis Presley we now add Train, by Al Noble !
Anyway, Al strolled in, played the song through once. We figured a shuffle was the way to go. A railroad shuffle. We ran through it a couple of times. Sounded good. Manny suggested we record take one with just his rhythm guitar, then overdub his lead.
That's what we did, and THIS is what we got !
All shunted together, go to whoa, in three hours. Great fun.
We dig it, hope you do too.
Thank you brother Al !