This comes from one of the "cowboy music" revival groups of the 70's, called Riders in the Sky. It's from a '78 release on Rounder Records. While not an old song, it comes from the classic style made famous by the Sons of the Pioneers. (3:13)
Here's a cut from a unique album titled The Sound of Speed, a music to horsepower sort of thing - ocean liners to tricycles. It's by Bob Thompson, and came out in '03 on the Spunky Monkey Music label. (2:52)
We've included this since we have mention here of "The Texas Chief," which had it's first run in April of 1948. Michael Martin Murphey came out with this in '81, and it still sounds good. It's off The Best of Michael Martin Murphey reissued by Capitol in '95. (5:38)
Here's one of the legendary Sonny Boy Williamson's, (please google this to get the full story on the 2 of them, there's no room here to explain), doing a classic Chicago blues style number. It got reissued in '97 on a CD titled simply His Best, brought out on Geffen. (2:39)
t Elvin Bishop was born in 1942, so it's doubtful he ever played this in the 40's. But, it sounds like it belongs in a spot where we're talkin' Chicago, and trains, and blues and soul, so... It's off his 2005 release on Blind Pig Records, Gettin' My Groove Back. (7:38)
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a From Wikipedia
The Chicago Railroad Fair was an event organized to celebrate and commemorate 100 years of railroad history west of Chicago, Illinois. It was held in Chicago in 1948 and 1949 along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is often referred to as "the last great railroad fair" with 39 railroad companies participating. The board of directors for the show was a veritable "Who's Who" of railroad company executives.
The fair was rapidly planned during the winter and spring of 1948, and originally scheduled to run between July and August of that summer. Erected on fifty acres of Burnham Park in Chicago between 21st and 31st Streets, the fair opened after only six months of planning.
A grand opening for the fair commenced on July 20 with a parade that featured such spectacles as a military marching band and a replica of a troop train, a contingent of cowboys and Native Americans, a replica of the Tom Thumb, the first American locomotive, and the spry, octegenarian widow of Casey Jones, who served as honorary Grand Master of the parade.
One dollar was the price of admission, and, except food, all the attractions, displays, exhibits and shows were free. Besides the thirty-nine railroads who participated in the fair, there were more than twenty equipment manufacturers, including General Motors.
In addition to being the last great assembly of railroad equipment and technology by participating railroad companies, the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair holds a lesser known honor and connection to Disneyland. In 1948 Walt Disney and animator Ward Kimball attended the fair. To their enjoyment they not only got to see all of the equipment, but they were also allowed to operate some of the steam locomotives that were at the Fair. Upon their return to Los Angeles, Disney used the Fair and Greenfield Village which the two had also visited on the trip, as inspiration for a "Mickey Mouse Park" that eventually became Disneyland. Walt also went on to build his own backyard railroads, building the Carolwood Pacific Railroad. Kimball already had his own, named Grizzly Flats Railroad.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe sings this old classic, off a great compilation CD released this year by Rhythm and Blues Records. The title is Up River to Chicago - Urban Blues and Gospel. (2:42)
