Story Behind the Song: Ep 4
Ah, trains, and blues, And trains. What a great combo.
Sometimes you just get messing around with a riff on the guitar and come up with a song to go with it. That's pretty much what happened here. Blues as a form is deeply embedded in my thinking as a player and a writer. I'm not saying I'm great, but blues and blues influenced rock have always been something I really loved.
The speaker of this little narrative, is, of course, a classic unreliable narrator. It isn't the train that has messed up his relationship. He just doesn't know that. Typical delusional guy. It's you buddy, not the train.
We had a ton of fun recording this one- John and I each did about four different guitar tracks and overlayed them all. I think there are five tracks doing the main riff between verses. Then Ryan Benthall came in and played the organ parts- he's an awesome player and really gets the ‘roadhouse music’ style I'm going for.
When I was thinking about putting together some sort of video content for the single release, it just happened that the annual trip of the Union Pacific Big Boy (#4014) was coning through Greely, CO. So I wen tout that day and shot some video of that awesome train. The bits of me playing on a train platform are in Fort Morgan, CO, where the Amtrak Zephyr makes it's last stop before Denver.
You can't do what I do and not be into train songs. I started a list, so feel free to send me any good train songs that come to mind and I'll add them. I put this song out as a single about a year and a half ago, so you can watch the video or stream it on Spotify, or even better, pre-order the album in CD or vinyl. If you do pre-order you can get an exclusive release t-shirt to go with your new album. All physical media ships at the start of July. So you'll get it before anyone else! You can also get one of the exclusive shirts if you buy a release show ticket. The show is July 18 in Longmont. So do that.