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Trains, Factories & Old-Time Music



Last night, I went with a co-worker of mine at the Temple of the Dog out to some random factory in Dundalk, a suburb of Baltimore City. We parked his truck in the lot, let down the tailgate and he played fiddle and showed me guitar parts to back fiddle playing. We went through the songs “John Henry” and “Cripple Creek” as freight trains rolled by slowly in the background. I’ve never played guitar with a fiddler before and it was both extremely fun and very instructive. It helped me to listen to how music fits together in a totally new way, and also felt like some kind of missing link to the type of music I’ve been playing, and the general vibe that I’ve been chasing down.

Music in a factory parking lot in the presence of massive trains is something altogether different than music played in your bedroom. The trains rolled in like some kind of celebration, like some kind of strange migratory beast from both the deep past and outer space, each boxcar its own cathedral in the dark of the headlights.

We decided that we’re going to build up a repertoire of songs, Old-Time music standards. I’ve been collecting tons of links and info in my newsletter. You really ought to subscribe. Who knows where this all goes, but we talked a lot about how in other parts of the country, people do this sort of thing all the time: just get together to play simple beautiful songs and hang-out. It’s as old as people are, and probably older. Animals and all things, I’m convinced, make music. Why don’t you?

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6 Reader Responses

  1. Big Elk Says:
    March 14th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    I also listened last night to Ramblin Jack’s 1957 recording, Cowes Harbour, which is goddamned amazing and itself taught me a hell of a lot. Can’t wait to listen to it again and again.

  2. skip wiley Says:
    March 14th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    That is a very beautifully said thing about trains. We have tracks close enough to our house to hear them every so often when drifting off to sleep. It is so damn comforting in the strangest way… almost like it taps into some primeval archetypal power. Funny how trains are relatively so young but have steadily implant themselves in collective consciousness in that way. Steady, rumbling, glutteral, dependable… very much like a heart beat.

    * * *

    Tim did you ever work out or find a firefox plugin for tumblr? Funnily enough, my google searches for such a thing return your blog post about it back in September. I like the idea of tumblr but am still grasping with the most efficient way to make entries.

  3. Julia Says:
    March 14th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

    I didn’t know you had a newsletter. How do I sign up?

  4. flockofdgulls Says:
    March 14th, 2008 at 4:51 pm

    have you seen the movie Harlan County USA? i think you would love the music in it.
    one of my earliest memories is of visiting my grandmother in oklahoma. the santa fe railroad passed mere yards from her house everyday. i also have fond memories of drinking tequila by the the train tracks behind MICA. our revelry would occasionally be interrupted by the slow moving power of a freight train that would leave everyone speechless for several minutes.

  5. G1bass Says:
    March 14th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

    I highly recommend the documentary, Harry Smiths Old Weird America, and of course the anthology itself, Anthology Of American Folk Music. If you love fiddles,guitars and the high whine of a freight locomotive and have a spare 80 bucks laying around it will enrich you beyond measure.

  6. speedbird Says:
    March 17th, 2008 at 4:58 am

    These guys are interesting… ‘music without industry’:

    http://www.electrasy.com/

    (and they play good brit-rock too)



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