Album Review: Various Artists - Americana Railroad
All of the songs are about trains and several of them employ harmonica or horns to ape locomotive whistles. But that’s where the similarities end and the tracks diverge on Americana Railroad.
The album was originally a limited release Record Store Day special and is now out on digital platforms.
The brainchild of co-producers Carla Olson and Saul Davis, the 19-song, various artists’ compilation goes all the way back to Elizabeth Cotten’s “Freight Train” by A.J. Haynes and travels as far forward as Dom Flemons’ original “Steel Pony Blues.”
Two versions of “Mystery Train,” the first by Rocky Burnett and Barry Goldberg, and the second by James Intveld and Goldberg, sum up the LP’s diversity, from fairly true to Elvis Presley’s famous take to a bluesy shuffle, respectively.
While there is no filler, the track-jumping can be districting as the music shifts from the hard country of Robert Rex Waller Jr. and Chip Kinman’s “The Conductor Wore Black” to the folk of John Fogerty and Mickey Raphael’s “City of New Orleans” to the hard rock of Gary Myrick’s “Train Kept A-Rollin’.”
But it’s worth the 75-minute journey because just when the Americana Railroad starts to grow tiresome, surprising gems like CSN’s “Marrakesh Express” (Dustbowl Revival) and Procol Harum’s “Whiskey Train” (Olson and Brian Ray) come in to earshot.
Grade card: Various Artists - Americana Railroad - B-
7/20/22
