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"Freight Train" is an American folk song written by Elizabeth Cotten in the early 20th century, and popularized during the American folk revival and British skiffle [1] period of the 1950s and 1960s.
The song "Freight Train", sung by Nancy Whiskey with the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group, appears in full in the Bermondsey Town Hall concert sequence at the end of the 1957 film The Tommy Steele Story. [6] Also, in 2023, "Freight Train", sung by Whiskey, was featured in Wes Anderson's film Asteroid City. [7]
A train song is a song referencing passenger or freight railroads, often using a syncopated beat resembling the sound of train wheels over train tracks.Trains have been a theme in both traditional and popular music since the first half of the 19th century and over the years have appeared in nearly all musical genres, including folk, blues, country, rock, jazz, world, classical and avant-garde.
In late 1956, whilst recording the song "Freight Train" – written by folk blues singer Elizabeth Cotten [3] – for Oriole Records, studio owner Bill Varley suggested they should add a female singer. [4] As a result, folk singer Nancy Whiskey was invited to join the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group, and they re-recorded the song with her vocals. [3]
Seeger, Mike. Liner notes accompanying Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes, by Elizabeth Cotten. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Folkways, 1989 reissue of the 1958 album Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar. Smith, Jessie Carney (1993). Epic Lives: One Hundred Black Women Who Made a Difference. Detroit: Visible Ink Press.
The album is also known as Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes and was originally released as Elizabeth Cotten: Negro Folk Songs and Tunes. [3] [4] It is best known for containing the earliest recording of her classic "Freight Train." The album cover was designed by Ronald Clyne. [4]
Many of the songs in the 1950s hinted at the simmering racial tension that would later usher in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The 1950s was a pivotal era in music, laying the groundwork ...
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, ... Sing Unto Him a New Song — Sacred Songs We Love — ... "Freight Train" 44 1982 "North Wind" ...