In this show you’ll hear songs about famous plane wrecks, train wrecks, and the most famous shipwreck of all time.
I finally visited the Boeing Museum of Flight in Seattle recently, which piqued my interest in songs about airplanes, flying, and Amelia Earhart, so that is the focus of the first half hour of the program.
The first known train song was written in 1898, and Wikipedia lists over 800 songs about trains that have been recorded since then. I love trains and songs about trains so up next, you’ll hear some classic train songs.
On April 15, 1912, the largest ship ever built, the passenger ship HMS Titanic, encountered an iceberg on her maiden voyage from England to New York City and sank. The Titanic was considered unsinkable and was only equipped with lifeboats for half the passengers. Over 1500 people died in the icy waters she sank in. Folk music was the social media of the times, and as a result over 100 songs about the disaster were published within a year. I’ll be featuring great versions of some of my favorite songs about the Titanic.
Featured artists include John Hartford, Al Stewart, Lead Belly, Doc Watson, Norman Blake, Tony Rice, Johnny Cash, Billy Strings, Jerry Garcia, Rory Block, and Ruthie Foster.
All aboard!
Here's an interesting documentary about Amelia Earhart: https://youtu.be/HKORvBxr42o?si=neWaBblA2SP5y3Rn
Here's a great live version of "Amelia" by Joni Mitchell I didn't play in my show: https://youtu.be/1N7gPcCgkZU?si=HJU0jyQtMArE8MwW
Here's Norman Blake and Tony Rice performing "New River Train": https://youtu.be/Y36HCn4Ivws?si=Cp6Xa3UJO0Iybc5h
Here's the Irish Rovers performing "The Titanic": https://youtu.be/XLSVvom969o?si=umTsgJwBLvWMSIju
Here's Billy Strings performing :Streamline Cannonball": https://youtu.be/BafPcRqhGnI?si=u7BtUelG8H2ABPdu
BTW: The song "Wabash Cannonball", which dates to the late 1800s, was written about a train that did not exist."The only train to actually bear the name was created in response to the song's popularity, the Wabash Railroad renaming its daytime express service between Detroit and St. Louis the Wabash Cannon Ball from 1949 until discontinuation during the formation of Amtrak in 1971." (Wikipedia).
Here is the Wikipedia entry for Wabash Cannonball: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabash_Cannonball
- KBOO