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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

307. "Freight Train" by Elizabeth Cotten



At this point, 39-40 is primed to become a series of leapfrogging subprojects and albums-to-be. Here's the next viable track in the Thunderhill collection. This one is not slated for inclusion on the upcoming compilation, but it's the next song from the concert I'm pillaging for the ones which are, and it seems silly not to have a record of the entire show. The difference is that I'm not manicuring these with overdubs and corrections... they're basically decent mixes (by my standards) of what we played that day, warts and all. I won't be posting all of them (a few are redundant), but you'll hear almost all of it eventually.

Apparently this song is better known than I'd thought; throughout Thunderhill's career it's been obscure enough that a lot of people think it's a band original. Certainly they got it from someone other than Elizabeth Cotten, who wrote it; the fact that they sing "Bleecker Street" in place of "Chestnut Street" is a clue to the general milieu it most have come from, but I forget whose version it was. Anyway, a few years ago a solo performer (and I wish I could remember her name) on the same bill as The Chiggers dropped this song into a set of mostly originals, and that was very cool to hear. It's a fun one to play.

Personnel:
THUNDERHILL
Jim Broome ~ Lead vocal, rhythm guitar
Rich Frush ~ Drums, backing vocal
Rex Broome ~ Lead guitar, backing vocal
Tom Heckman ~ Bass, backing vocal
Jerry Marsh ~ Tambourine
Basic tracks recorded by Heckman live at the Honi Honi, Deep Creek Lake, MD, Summer 2010
Additional recording and mixing by Rex at Minco Records, Silver Lake, CA, January 2011



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