Search - Various Artists :: Classic Railroad Songs, Vol. 3: Night Train

African Americans sing about trains

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 03/08/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Many compilations of train songs, including others in this series by Rounder, focus on country and folk music, but this set shows that people sang about trains regardless of musical genre or their own ethnic origin. So this set covers blues, jazz, boogie-woogie, R+B, soul and gospel.Leadbelly adapted Rock Island line in the 1940's, most notably adding the discussion about pig iron and livestock. Others including Johnny Cash and Lonnie Donegan covered his version in the 1950's and beyond. However, the version here, by Linda Tillery and the cultural heritage choir, is more faithful to the song as it existed before Leadbelly made the changes that we now tend to assume were always there.The version of Mystery train here is by Little Esther (actually Esther Phillips) and the robins. Esther had a top ten American hit in the sixties with Release me, a song which was originally a country hit for Ray Price but which is now associated with Engelbert Humperdinck. Esther does a superb job on Mystery Train.

A high standard is maintained throughout this set, beginning with Louis Jordan's classic rendition of Choo choo ch' boogie. Other train classics can be found here, including Trouble in mind and Boogie-woogie choo choo train."