“Freight Train Boogie” is an up-tempo country boogie written and recorded by the Delmore Brothers, Alton and Rabon, who registered it under a pair of pseudonyms. The brothers cut it in Cincinnati, and the King label released it in 1946.
The record was a hit, reaching the upper end of the country charts, and it has a place in a larger story: with its hard-shuffling rhythm and electrified drive, “Freight Train Boogie” is often cited among the recordings that helped point hillbilly music toward rock and roll. Trains ran deep in the Delmores’ songwriting — they grew up near the tracks of a busy rail line — and the boogie turned that familiar rumble into a propulsive dance number.
The song became a standard of the country-boogie and flatpicking repertoires, prized for the momentum that suits fast guitar work.
