Railroad Town is Jr. Williams’s album for Mountain Fever Records, released in 2022 (MFR 2211405). Williams, from Kentucky, first became known with NewFound Road and later led NewTown with Kati Penn until the band dissolved in 2019. He sings lead and plays banjo; Aaron Ramsey plays guitar, Adam Steffey mandolin and Jeff Partin Dobro and bass, with Nathan Aldridge on fiddle for nine of the ten tracks.
The title song, “Railroad Town Without a Train,” written by Thomm Jutz and Tim Stafford, was the first single from the album, released in September 2021, and tells of the closing of the Clinchfield rail yards in Erwin, Tennessee. The rest is a mix of familiar bluegrass and country songs and a few newer ones: “Gonna Settle Down,” a Flatt and Scruggs song; Don Williams’s “Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good”; Caleb Klauder’s “Can I Go Home with You”; and the instrumental “Sledd Ridin’.” Junior Sisk joins Williams on “Let Me Walk, Lord, by Your Side,” Amanda Cook sings harmony on “I Feel the Blues Moving In” and Zach Arnold on “Worried Man Blues.”
Tracklist
- 1 Gonna Settle Down alt version 3:59
- 2 Lord I Hope This Day Is Good 3:50
- 3 I Feel the Blues Moving In alt version 3:51
- 4 House of Gold alt version 2:06
- 5 Railroad Town Without a Train 2:55
- 6 Let Me Walk Lord By Your Side 3:38
- 7 Sled Ridin' - Instrumental 2:27
- 8 For No Good Reason 3:16
- 9 Worried Man Blues alt version 4:02
- 10 Can I Go Home with You 3:38
