Freight Train cover

Freight Train

Jim & Jesse

Album · 1968 · Capitol ST 770

Freight Train is the album from Jim & Jesse’s second stay at Capitol Records, issued in 1971 as Capitol ST-770. The brothers had first recorded for Capitol from 1952 to 1955 and spent most of the 1960s on Epic before returning to the label for 1970 and 1971.

Its ten songs were recorded at three sessions at Jack Clement Recording Studio on Belmont Boulevard in Nashville, on 1 October and 16 November 1970 and 10 February 1971, with Larry Butler producing. Jim McReynolds played guitar and Jesse McReynolds mandolin, both brothers sang, and Junior Huskey played bass. The other musicians on the dates are not documented.

The title song, Elizabeth Cotten’s “Freight Train,” came from the first session and was issued in January 1971 as Capitol 3026, backed with “Just Wondering Why.” It reached No. 44 on Billboard’s country chart. The record credits the song to “P. James–F. Williams,” the pseudonyms under which British skiffle writers had claimed it before the copyright was restored to Cotten. “San Quentin Quail,” with “I’ll Always Be Waiting for You” on the other side, followed as a single in May. The brothers wrote three of the songs: “I’ll Always Be Waiting for You,” “Just Wondering Why” and “Congratulations Anyway.” The rest come from other writers, among them Gene MacLellan’s “Snowbird,” Levine and Brown’s “Knock Three Times,” and Chuck Berry’s “Promised Land.”

Tracklist

  1. 1 Cotton Mill Man 2:52
  2. 2 Please Be My Love 2:11
  3. 3 Blue Ridge Mountain Blues alt version 3:21
  4. 4 Live and Let Live alt version 2:39
  5. 5 Careless Love, Goodbye 2:48
  6. 6 It's A Long, Long Way To The Top Of The World 2:54
  7. 7 Just One Of A Kind 2:25
  8. 8 Old Love Letters alt version 2:34
  9. 9 As Long As The Wind Blows 3:15
  10. 10 Wishful Thinking 2:55
  11. 11 I Heard the Bluebirds Sing alt version 2:33
  12. 12 Rocky Top alt version 2:40
  13. 13 Alone With You 2:25
  14. 14 Mansion On The Hill 2:30
  15. 15 Everybody's Reaching Out For Someone 2:05
  16. 16 I'm A Lonesome Fugitive 3:01
  17. 17 Wreck of the Number Nine alt version 2:17
  18. 18 (I'm Changing The Words To) My Love Song 2:45
  19. 19 Ashes of Love alt version 2:22
  20. 20 When You Want A Little Lovin' 2:36
  21. 21 The Best Dressed Beggar In Town 2:26
  22. 22 Don't Ever Take Your Love From Me 2:46
  23. 23 Sundown And Sorrow 2:54
  24. 24 'Mid The Green Fields Of Virginia 2:35
  25. 25 Somewhere My Love 3:11
  26. 26 Jesus Is The Key To The Kingdom 2:24
  27. 27 Little White Church alt version 2:46
  28. 28 The Family Bible alt version 3:03
  29. 29 Walking My Lord Up Calvary Hill 2:48
  30. 30 Truth on the Mountain 3:06
  31. 31 The Family Who Prays (Never Shall Part) 2:20
  32. 32 Wings of a Dove alt version 3:54
  33. 33 Matthew 24 2:36
  34. 34 Born Again 2:18
  35. 35 Two Thousand Years Ago 4:25
  36. 36 River of Jordon 2:05
  37. 37 How Great Thou Art alt version 3:12
  38. 38 Heaven 2:38
  39. 39 Over in the Gloryland 2:15
  40. 40 Life is Like a Mountain Railway alt version 3:28
  41. 41 There's a Light Guiding Me 2:29
  42. 42 An Old Account Settled 2:32
  43. 43 Wait A Little Longer Please Jesus 2:53
  44. 44 Everybody Will Be Happy Over There 2:33
  45. 45 Great Speckled Bird alt version 2:56
  46. 46 We Are Climbing 2:13
  47. 47 When He Reached Down His Hand For Me alt version 3:09
  48. 48 Something Got A Hold Of Me 2:15
  49. 49 Amazing Grace alt version 2:57
  50. 50 I'll Rear My Harvest In Heaven 2:09
  51. 51 Freight Train alt version 2:12

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