Barbara Dane
900 Miles and other R.R. Songs
Cisco Houston FW02013 / FA 2013
Railroaders and cowboys share a need for music to bolster their spirits during long days and to celebrate night’s freedom. Cisco Houston sings ballads from the range and from the lonesome track, where “the drivers are still rolling, and the gamblers and work gangs, boomers and bums, are highballing it out of nowhere, nine hundred miles from home.”
Barbara Dane – Nine Hundred Miles
I am walkin’ down this track
I’ve got tears in my eyes
I’m tryin’ to read a letter from my home
An’ if this train runs me right
I’ll be home Saturday night
‘Cause I’m nine hundred miles from my home
Lord I hate to hear
That lonesome whistle blow
This train I ride on
Is a hundred coaches long
Well, you can hear her whistle blow
A million miles
An’ if this train runs me right
I’ll see my woman on saturday night
‘Cause I’m nine hundred miles from my home
Lord I hate to hear
That lonesome whistle blow
I will pawn you my wagon
And I will pawn you my team
I will pawn you my watch and my chain
An’ if this train runs me right
I’ll be home Saturday night
‘Cause I’m nine hundred miles from my home
Lord I hate to hear
That lonesome whistle blow
That long lonesome train whistlin’ down
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlwiPsb-zW0&rel=0
odetta sings folk songs 1 900 miles