the last train that rode the rails
by Shotgun Language
about
I've known Brian Reed for a couple of years now, he's a fantastic guy: a seller of hawaiian shirts, a spectacular blues harp player, a professional photographer and artist and a man with a great passion for music.
Since I started out playing live as Shotgun Language he's been coming to my shows, all ears and always contributing with some interesting feedback. It had been a while since we last sat down for a jam session in Brian's beautiful old stone cellar underneath his house. We started working on this song and he said:
- This is great, every good blues song deals with trains in some way or another. After playing the whole song through one time Brian got out some recording equipment. We put a single microphone on the table where we were sitting and got this take.
The last train that rode the rails is a song dedicated to those towns who fell into slumber/certain death when many smaller, swedish railway lines shut down in the 1960's. Mellersta Östergötlands Järnvägar, R.I.P
This is a song about growing up in a place that is a hollow shell, a place that only makes sense in retrospect, a dead place.
Since I started out playing live as Shotgun Language he's been coming to my shows, all ears and always contributing with some interesting feedback. It had been a while since we last sat down for a jam session in Brian's beautiful old stone cellar underneath his house. We started working on this song and he said:
- This is great, every good blues song deals with trains in some way or another. After playing the whole song through one time Brian got out some recording equipment. We put a single microphone on the table where we were sitting and got this take.
The last train that rode the rails is a song dedicated to those towns who fell into slumber/certain death when many smaller, swedish railway lines shut down in the 1960's. Mellersta Östergötlands Järnvägar, R.I.P
This is a song about growing up in a place that is a hollow shell, a place that only makes sense in retrospect, a dead place.
lyrics
Chains on the gates and whirlwinds rattle hearts hung in trees, I came down on palm sunday to walk empty streets. Love left riding on the last train that rode the rails
That was youth and yesterday, somebody said, just up and left not coming back around here again. Come bring your shovel, everybody's digging their graves
Long sleep and the reaper sits waiting tonight if you don't turn and run all the way back to town. We've dug a hole in the meadow, are you in or out?
Now nobody passes by, nobody calls. We gather dust and rubble, look for fallen stars. Love left riding on the last train that rode the rails.
Somewhere down along them tracks lay the motion we had but she's done gone off and left everybody sad. They send me looking for youth and yesterday
Before I leave I hang my heart in a tree, say goodbye to the reaper and the chains on the gates, go looking for youth and yesterday
That was youth and yesterday, somebody said, just up and left not coming back around here again. Come bring your shovel, everybody's digging their graves
Long sleep and the reaper sits waiting tonight if you don't turn and run all the way back to town. We've dug a hole in the meadow, are you in or out?
Now nobody passes by, nobody calls. We gather dust and rubble, look for fallen stars. Love left riding on the last train that rode the rails.
Somewhere down along them tracks lay the motion we had but she's done gone off and left everybody sad. They send me looking for youth and yesterday
Before I leave I hang my heart in a tree, say goodbye to the reaper and the chains on the gates, go looking for youth and yesterday
credits
released 09 December 2010
Gustav Berry - telecaster deluxe & vocals
Brian Reed - harps, train whistle
Gustav Berry - telecaster deluxe & vocals
Brian Reed - harps, train whistle
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license
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about
Well. It's a love story.
It's me and this piece of land and everything that inhabits
... more
it.
Clouds and grass, people, lost cats, feelings and empties thrown by the roadsides.
It's a map. A map I live by, that I find my way and that get lost by.
I've always been here, beholding. And here I tell.
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discography
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Oct 2011 -
Dec 2010 -
Nov 2010 -
Apr 2010
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