Train 45: Railroad Songs Of The Early 1900s

If you think popular music is a fickle mistress, blame America’s railroads. These days the rails inspire little more than hackneyed romantic metaphors, but in the early years of the recording industry, they constituted a formidable, pervasive fad and set a precedent for topical songwriting that will likely never go out of fashion. Train 45, the fourth volume in an ongoing series, collects some of the most charming and evocative railroad songs from the first half of the 20th century. Though meticulously remastered, these old 78 sides still sound scratchy and muted–just as they should. After all, it’s hard to picture a railside hobo (the original inspiration and audience for many of these songs) listening to a CD in the first place. He’d sooner use it for a shaving mirror. –Matt Hanks