Open mic done at Duke's

In the days before everyone had their own car, the railroad symbolized America, and America was all about freedom.  In the 19th century, the Transcontinental Railroad unified a fractured and disjounted America.  It was abject evidence that we had conquered the wilderness.  The great distances that were America were somehow diminished.  You could get on a train in New York and, eventually, you could be cooling your heels in the Pacific Ocean.  There was no place you couldn't go.

To an America growing up, the railroad represented freedom and adventure.  For many, in a very real sense, it was the quickest way to get to other places. For some, it was the only way to go somewhere, or to get away from something. It could take you to far away places.  Mysterious places full of mysterious and interesting people doing interesting and important things.  Laying in bed at night and hearing the distant wail of a passing train filled the head of many a kid with tantillizing visions of adventure. Places where anything was possible.

Trains and the railroads run deep in the collective psyche of our generation.  But the wistles and the clanking of the tracks as the trains go by are heard less today, and I fear, they do not impregnate our souls as they once did. For many, they are just a nuisance. Like so many other things, they are being bulldozed by the relentlessness of time.  I do not know if that is a good thing.

Trains have figured prominantly in American music.  From Woody Guthrie to Guy Clark, train songs have stirred our imagination. So, in a sense, we chose Blue Rail to pay some small homage to the romanticism of the railroad. To the freedom and mystery that lies ahead as you peer out at those twin rails, blue from the reflected sky, that seem to go on forever.  Plus, well, it sounded pretty cool too.
 
 

"So go to sleep you weary hobo
Let the towns drift slowly by
Listen to the steel rails hummin'
That's a hobo's lullaby"

-Woody Guthrie
"Hobo's Lullaby"