“Last Train from Poor Valley” was written by Norman Blake. It was on record in 1973 on the Seldom Scene’s Rebel album Act Two (SLP 1520), recorded at Bias Studios in Falls Church, Virginia, with John Starling singing lead, John Duffey on mandolin and tenor, Mike Auldridge on dobro and baritone, Ben Eldridge on banjo and Tom Gray on bass; it is the album’s opening track, and Blake’s song was among the earliest of his compositions that other artists recorded. Blake put it on his own 1974 Flying Fish album Fields of November, with Nancy Short on cello and Charlie Collins on fiddle.
The lyric is set in a coal town after the mines have closed down. The singer recalls when the tipples roared day and night, then the layoffs, the lines for ration scrip and what the hard times did to his wife. In the end she leaves on the last train, bound for Richmond, and he does not blame her; she was not cut out to be a miner’s wife, and she had left home to run away with him.
Norman Blake and Tony Rice recorded it for their 1987 Rounder duo album Blake & Rice, with Rice singing the lead and both men on guitar. A recording by Blake is on Harlan County USA: Songs of the Coal Miner’s Struggle (Rounder, 2006). Tim O’Brien recorded it on his 2019 band album, and in 2022 Bob Minner opened his tribute album From Sulphur Springs to Rising Fawn: The Songs of Norman Blake with it, with Tim Stafford singing.
