{"id":585,"date":"2016-03-19T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=585"},"modified":"2024-11-23T12:51:46","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T17:51:46","slug":"freight-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/","title":{"rendered":"Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Freight Train\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CTx-tZpb5KI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I started playing \u201cFreight Train\u201d as my regular encore piece in the 1980s, after realizing that I hadn\u2019t heard anyone do it in about fifteen years. Everybody had quit playing it because it was so overdone \u2013 like the Yogi Berra line* \u2013 so I had it to myself, which was great. Nowadays, there are probably some young folk-blues fans who have never even heard it \u2013 which in terms of the popular culture of my youth is sort of like not having heard \u201cStairway to Heaven,\u201d except that I don\u2019t envy them.<\/p>\n<p>I probably heard \u201cFreight Train\u201d for the first time by Peter, Paul and Mary \u2013 which would mean I heard it on one of my little sister\u2019s records, and dismissed it accordingly, along with \u201cPuff, the Magic Dragon.\u201d<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-587 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/elizabeth-cotten.jpg?resize=300%2C197&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"elizabeth cotten\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/elizabeth-cotten.jpg?resize=300%2C197&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/elizabeth-cotten.jpg?w=380&amp;ssl=1 380w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> Of course, I learned to play it anyway, because everybody who played fingerpicking guitar in those days learned \u201cFreight Train.\u201d And I\u2019m sure I at least knew Elizabeth Cotten\u2019s name and the basic story of her emergence on the folk scene, which is one of the odder artifacts of the revival:<\/p>\n<p>Cotten was from North Carolina, and had learned to play guitar there as a girl. She was left-handed, so worked out her own way to play upside-down, using her index finger to play an alternating bass and playing the melody with her index finger. (Since most old-time fingerstyle players used only thumb and index finger, this was not all that different from the way other people played, though it meant she couldn\u2019t use a strong thumb to drive the bass for a dance beat.)<\/p>\n<p>The curious part of the story was that she got a job as maid and babysitter for Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger, and played music sometimes for their children, including Mike and Peggy. (Pete was an older half-brother, from Charles Seeger\u2019s previous family.) Mike recorded her and introduced \u201cFreight Train\u201d to the rest of the folk scene, and by the early 1960s Cotten was performing at concerts and festivals, and recording albums for the Folkways label. She introduced several other songs to the standard repertoire, including \u201cOh, Babe, It Ain\u2019t No Lie,\u201d \u201cShake Sugaree,\u201d and an instrumental called \u201cWilson Rag,\u201d which was one of the first pieces Dave Van Ronk taught me.<\/p>\n<p>All of which is interesting enough, but \u201cFreight Train\u201d was by far her best-known song \u2013 indeed, so well known that I considered it trite and overdone. T<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-588\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Fantasy-blues-sampler.jpg?resize=184%2C184\" alt=\"Fantasy blues sampler\" width=\"184\" height=\"184\" \/>hen I heard Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry do it, on the same Fantasy double-album blues anthology where I first heard Van Ronk sing \u201cCocaine Blues\u201d (That also may have been my first taste of the Reverend Gary Davis and Tom Rush, and certainly was where I first heard the Holy Modal Rounders.) They had a bunch of verses I\u2019d never heard before, and I recently realized that my favorite went back to Clara Smith\u2019s \u201cFreight Train Blues\u201d:<\/p>\n<p>I asked the brakeman, let me ride the blinds,<br \/>\nI asked the brakeman, please let me ride the blinds.<br \/>\nThe brakeman said, \u201cClara, you know this train ain\u2019t mine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-589 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Clara-Smith.jpg?resize=206%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Clara Smith\" width=\"206\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Clara-Smith.jpg?resize=206%2C300&amp;ssl=1 206w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Clara-Smith.jpg?w=244&amp;ssl=1 244w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/>Like a lot of male, guitar-playing blues fans of my generation, I didn\u2019t pay much attention to the \u201cblues queens\u201d of the 1920s, with the exception of Bessie Smith, who I heard by way of Louis Armstrong and jazz, so I didn&#8217;t realize the extent to which the recordings of Clara Smith and Ida Cox were major sources for rural blues musicians in the 1920s. I never listened to Elizabeth Cotten either, because her high, wavering soprano didn\u2019t appeal to me. Honestly, one of the reasons I liked Brownie and Sonny\u2019s version of \u201cFreight Train\u201d was that it fitted my notion of a masculine freight-hopping life, while I thought of Cotten\u2019s version (not to mention PP&amp;M\u2019s) as relatively wimpy. Which is to say, I had a lot to learn\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2026and still do, but at least I came around on &#8220;Freight Train.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>*<span class=\"st\"> Berra famously said of a St. Louis Restaurant, &#8220;Nobody goes there anymore. It&#8217;s too crowded.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t know where I learned &#8220;Freight Train,&#8221; because everybody played it &#8212; but it&#8217;s one of my favorite songs, and I only recently learned that I owe my favorite verse to Clara Smith. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I don&#039;t know where I learned &quot;Freight Train,&quot; but it&#039;s one of my favorite songs, and I only recently learned that I owe my favorite verse to Clara Smith.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don&#039;t know where I learned &quot;Freight Train,&quot; but it&#039;s one of my favorite songs, and I only recently learned that I owe my favorite verse to Clara Smith.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-19T11:00:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-23T17:51:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/elizabeth-cotten-300x197.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/freight-train\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/freight-train\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten)\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-19T11:00:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-23T17:51:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/freight-train\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":695,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/freight-train\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/elizabeth-cotten-300x197.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/freight-train\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/freight-train\\\/\",\"name\":\"Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/freight-train\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/freight-train\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/elizabeth-cotten-300x197.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-19T11:00:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-23T17:51:46+00:00\",\"description\":\"I don't know where I learned \\\"Freight Train,\\\" but it's one of my favorite songs, and I only recently learned that I owe my favorite verse to Clara Smith.\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/freight-train\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/freight-train\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/freight-train\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/elizabeth-cotten.jpg?fit=380%2C250&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/elizabeth-cotten.jpg?fit=380%2C250&ssl=1\",\"width\":380,\"height\":250},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/freight-train\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"description\":\"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\",\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"width\":70,\"height\":85,\"caption\":\"Elijah Wald\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"I don't know where I learned \"Freight Train,\" but it's one of my favorite songs, and I only recently learned that I owe my favorite verse to Clara Smith.\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","og_description":"I don't know where I learned \"Freight Train,\" but it's one of my favorite songs, and I only recently learned that I owe my favorite verse to Clara Smith.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/","og_site_name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","article_published_time":"2016-03-19T11:00:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-11-23T17:51:46+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/elizabeth-cotten-300x197.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Elijah Wald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ElijahWald","twitter_site":"@ElijahWald","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elijah Wald","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/"},"author":{"name":"Elijah Wald","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"headline":"Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten)","datePublished":"2016-03-19T11:00:40+00:00","dateModified":"2024-11-23T17:51:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/"},"wordCount":695,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/elizabeth-cotten-300x197.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/","name":"Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/elizabeth-cotten-300x197.jpg","datePublished":"2016-03-19T11:00:40+00:00","dateModified":"2024-11-23T17:51:46+00:00","description":"I don't know where I learned \"Freight Train,\" but it's one of my favorite songs, and I only recently learned that I owe my favorite verse to Clara Smith.\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/elizabeth-cotten.jpg?fit=380%2C250&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/elizabeth-cotten.jpg?fit=380%2C250&ssl=1","width":380,"height":250},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/","name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9","name":"Elijah Wald","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","width":70,"height":85,"caption":"Elijah Wald"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5427,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/freight-train-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":585,"position":0},"title":"Freight Train Blues (Bob Dylan, mostly)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"October 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing a spate of Dylan memories, as I wait for the movie... I learned this from Dylan's first album, which only included two songs he had fully composed, but had a bunch of songs he had transmuted in various ways. The notes said he'd learned this from Roy Acuff's record,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Bob-Dylan-LP-e1729798042438.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":213,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/danville-girl\/","url_meta":{"origin":585,"position":1},"title":"Danville Girl (Cisco Houston\/hopping freights)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"March 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Another song from Cisco Houston, with some reminiscences of my first time hopping a freight train.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Danville-photo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":428,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hard-travelin\/","url_meta":{"origin":585,"position":2},"title":"Hard Travelin&#8217; (Woody Guthrie)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"February 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Woody said: This is a song about the hard traveling of the working people, not the moonstruck mystic traveling of the professional vacationist. Song about a man that has rode the flat wheelers, kicked up cinders, dumped the red hot slag...","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"guthrie-bound-for-glory-cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/guthrie-bound-for-glory-cover-213x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/railroad-bill\/","url_meta":{"origin":585,"position":3},"title":"Railroad Bill (Ramblin&#8217; Jack Elliott)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"February 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"From Woody and Cisco, it was an easy and obvious step to Ramblin' Jack Elliott -- one of the most ubiquitous and overlooked influences on folk guitar players of the 1960s.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"ramblin jack lp","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/ramblin-jack-lp.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2286,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/talking-wolverine-14\/","url_meta":{"origin":585,"position":4},"title":"Talking Wolverine 14 (Utah Phillips\/Rosalie Sorrels)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"February 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I came to this song by way of two of my favorite people, Bruce \"Utah\" Phillips and Rosalie Sorrels. I met both of them through Dave Van Ronk, and saw them often over the years -- I crashed at Bruce's place in Spokane and then in Grass Valley, and at\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"utah-and-rosalie","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Utah-and-Rosalie-251x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":222,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/vigilante-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":585,"position":5},"title":"Vigilante Man (with a train-hopping story)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"March 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"After hopping a freight in Davis, California, and riding it to Portland, Oregon, I headed east. The next ride was on a flatcar to Pasco, Washington, then on the front of a grain car to Spokane...","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"fonda_grapes_of_wrath","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/fonda_grapes_of_wrath.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5515,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions\/5515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}