Starlight On The Rails

IamNoMan

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This song is an excellent reminder of why Bruce "Utah" Phillips was called "The Golden Voice of the Great Southwest."

I first heard Bruce as a student at University. Over the Years we became friends and would get together to talk Railroading and swaplies. He was a great and effective orator and taught me some important precepts on the Art of Storytelling.


 
Super song IamNoMan. My wife and I became fans of Bruce circa 1981 when we saw him in Owen Sound. We went to see him whenever he came to Canada. He was one of those performers whose in between song banter was as entertaining as the songs. I just sang Going Home (I think that's what it's called*) at a jam on Sunday night. One of my favourite festival workshops was a story telling one put on by Bruce and Gamble Rogers.

*Is that the moon I see over there in the West
Or just a headlight glow, C&O Express?
I know she's gone, whatever I say,
And it won't be long
Till I've made up my mind
And gone away.
 
Thanks Jim. I was up at Old Songs one evening, wandering around inside the race track and listening to the trains down along the Hudson. I could hear a fully loaded freight train down there but no diesel. Along about then Utah strolls along in a rainbow colored bathrobe and a silly hat. So I asked him why the train was so quiet. His face lit up like a Christmas tree and he told me that old Thom Edison had electrified the rails way back when and all the trains from NYC to Albany ran on straight Electromotive Power!
 
Did you ever read Bruce's Teach In in Sing Out! magazine. Sing Out!'s Teach Ins were usually about guitar finger picking or clawhammer banjo or alternate dulcimer tunings or playing the nose flute. . . Bruce's Teach In was How To Hop A Freight Train.
 
You know Jim I don't think I remember seeing that one. I have been an avid supporter of Sing Out! since I was 16. Iam not sure how I missed it. A high School Chum of mine, Mark Moss has been the editor of SO! for many Years. I'll ask him to find me a copy.

From the Hobos and bikers I've talked to about this Jumping a Freight Train is most hazardous. Don't try it at home!
 
I believe it was Sing Out! Magazine, Volume 24, Number 3 (1975), This is written at the bottom of my lyrics for Andy Cohen's Five & Ten Cent Blues and I believe they came from the same issue.
 
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