OUT OF PRINT

Great songs and music are akin to the best visual art. In the hands of gifted performers, the songwriter’s efforts are sharply focused lyrically and instrumentally. Pictures are painted and hearts are moved. For well over a century the rich history of American railroads has provided abundant grist for the songwriter’s mill.

Trains are big and loom large in the collective unconscious. No wonder there are so many powerful railroad songs about real and metaphorical trains. Hundreds pay tribute to speeding locomotives, heroic engineers, hobos, lonely passengers, anxious lovers and late-night dreamers. Instrumentalists love to mimic the rhythms of the railroad – the clickety-clack of rolling wheels on rails and the scream of steam whistles.

This compilation features fourteen songs by Marty Stuart, Joe Ely, Laurie Lewis, Fred Eaglesmith and others.

Although all of these albums are out of print, used copies can be found online.