THOUGHTS ON TRAIN SONGS (AND A VIDEO)...

10 songs definite for the Train Set, thus far (and I haven’t gone through everything yet). They fall into the following categories:

GOSPEL:
Life’s Railway to Heaven (trad.)—fast Gospel (starts slow)
Glory Train (Katherine Fear)—fast Gospel
NOSTALGIA:
Tillamook RaIlroad Blues—deliberate blues
HISTORICAL:
Wreck of the Old 97 (trad.)—fast bluegrass
Steamboat Bill (Shields & Leighton)—1910 rock ‘n’ roll
ODDITIES:
Underground (Scott Garriott)—mod. fast folk, with railroad beat
California Zephyr (Christopher Smith)—fast ragtime
The Lightning Express (trad.)—fast bluegrass (starts slow)
The Last Saskatchewan Pirate (trad.)—fast folk
Blue Yodel No. 2 (Jimmie Rodgers)—rock ‘n’ roll

It’s exciting to have permission to do a Scott Garriott song. I really like his music—compelling melodies with very strange lyrics. (And “Underground” has a nice train rhythm. The recording on YouTube has a fiddle lead, too.) I was told Scott’s new album, Dragon in the Doorway, has me playing lead guitar on one of the songs (“Mattress and the Snake Pit”). I remember recording the lead, but I never have heard the final product. I’m getting a copy of the album.

I may well already have the couple more train songs I need to make up an hour’s set. Nonetheless, I assigned the Writers’ Guild “homework” to come up with train songs (actually train lyrics, that I can musicate—it’s mostly poets that have been coming to the meetings), with two caveats in mind: (1) With “The Last Saskatchewan Pirate” in mind, ask what you can say about trains that’s different. Or (2) if you’re going to be nostalgic, answer the question why we’re nostalgic about trains.

I’ll e-mail the “homework” assignment to those who weren’t there, and we’ll see what develops. Bottom line for them all is if they come up with something that’s good, and we can use it, it’s going to get performed by a very good (and quite popular) band, and the writers will be able to be there and hear it. And that, if it happens, will encourage the writers to do more. “Hey, they’re playing my song!” is a powerful incentive.

A bunch of the Train Set songs need to be recorded. I have “Tillamook Railroad Blues” (off the album), and a draft cut of “Steamboat Bill” done for last year’s Bay City centennial, and there might be a video of our “band scramble” band performing “Wreck of the Old 97” at the Jews Harp Festival that I can maybe extract the audio from. The rest I’ll have to record. I did get recordings of everybody’s submissions, but I’ll have to transpose the ones I can sing into a key I can sing them in.

I figured out I can do the music video of “Twenty-Four Seven” with (mostly) photos of SIGNS. It’ll be reminiscent of Dylan’s early music video of “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” except that mine will be photos, not film, and they’ll be snapshots of real signs. (Mine will be in color, too.) The cliches (I prefer to think of them as “cultural shorthand”) are everywhere. I began snapping photos for the video yesterday; might take several days to get ‘em all. I think I need around 65 photos. A few may be hard to get—like finding a “High Water” sign to photograph in the middle of Drought Season. (I do know a public works superintendent, though. Wonder if he has one of those signs stashed away somewhere?)

Supposed to be some passing-through bluegrass musicians coming to the “Rapture Room” jam session Sunday night. Could be fun.

Joe