I must confess I expected this album to be another version of Mermaid Avenue, the wonderful set of albums released by Bragg and Wilco all those years ago using the lyrics of Woody Guthrie. I was a fair way off with my expectations. What takes place here is a lesson in timing, acoustics, history and harmony.

Billy Bragg and Joe Henry (one of my favourite artists) jumped onto the train Texas Eagle at Union Station, Chicago, and rode its 2, 728 miles all the way down to San Antonio, Texas and then across to Los Angeles, California. At stops along the way they would get out, set up shop and record a song or songs, depending on how long they had to wait for their train to leave. Ambient noise and the recordings’ casual approach are the strength behind this album. The partnership is loose and gives the album a campfire, sing-a-long feel. I do feel that Joe Henry is the strength behind this album, but you can’t help getting caught up in Billy Braggs’ sense of love for American stories and history, and there is no more important story that helped shape modern America than that of the development of the railroad. Small-town America was suddenly connected to the big cities. East coast was connected to west coast and north to south. All of sudden, people had hope. Hope that they could move to a better life: jump on a train and you never know where you may end up or what you may end up doing.

The pair cover classic train songs by Lead Belly, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Glen Campbell, Woody Guthrie, The Carter Family, Doc Watson and Gordon Lightfoot, to name a few, and tell stories steeped in the history of the railroad. These are the stories of love, hope, freedom and the search for a better life. It’s all about connecting.

Lou Fulco