Train Time: 27 Blues Songs About Trains & Train Journeys / Various

Traditionally, there has always been a profound love affair between trains and roots music. As blues developed as a serious musical genre, during the 1920s and 30s, many of it's pioneers travelled from city to city, gig to gig, by hopping aboard moving freight trains. Their hoboing/rambling 'adventures' gradually became absorbed into their songs, along with metaphors and descriptive phrases like "riding the rails", "side-tracked", "derailed", "living on the right tracks", "blowing your stack", etc. This compilation presents twenty-six blues/R&B legends, ranging in fame, importance and influence from Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Tiny Bradshaw (who appears twice), Big Bill Broonzy, Lightnin' Hopkins, etc. , to lesser-known, mere mortals like Gabriel Brown, Silver Crooks, Willie Love, Soldier Boy Houston, Cousin Leroy, Willie Love and many more. The songs themselves include classic numbers like 'Mystery Train', 'The Train Kept A-Rollin', 'Mean Old Train', 'South Bound Train' and 'Train Fare Home'