New River Train: A Song History

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"New River Train" is an old-time song and breakdown associated with western North Carolina and southwestern Virginia; nearly all early versions were in D, though it is sometimes heard in G.[1] Its verses, in which the singer weighs the trouble of loving more than one sweetheart, also turn up without the train chorus under the title "Honey Babe," and the editors of the Traditional Ballad Index disagree about which form came first.[2] Sources differ on the name: the Traditional Tune Archive says a New River Train ran on the Norfolk and Western system, while the Traditional Ballad Index reports that apparently no line bore that name and that the label was probably applied informally to railroads with track in the New River area.[1][2] Fields Ward believed his southwest Virginia musical family had learned it around 1895.[1]

Old photograph of men and women in 1850s dress riding on the front of a steam locomotive with a large funnel stack and headlamp

[Artists' Excursion on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad], salted paper print from glass negative, 1858. An 1850s excursion train on another railroad, shown for the title; it has no connection to the song.

Henry Whitter, singing with guitar and harmonica, cut the first known record of it in New York in February 1924, issued on OKeh 40143.[3][1] Kelly Harrell followed in New York on January 7, 1925, with fiddle, guitar and harmonica behind him, on Victor 19596.[4] Both men lived in that part of Virginia, and Vernon Dalhart's recording, apparently modeled on Harrell's, probably did much to spread the song further.[2] Later versions came from Ernest Stoneman, the Monroe Brothers in 1936 and Pete Seeger, among many others.[2]

It has been recorded many times since; Tommy Jarrell, for one, put it on record in 1984 and had learned it from his fiddler father, Ben Jarrell.[1] Maureen Sellers gives it a DAD-tuning melody part in Simply Duets, her Fingers Of Steel collection of older songs set for two mountain dulcimers at a moderate level of difficulty.[5]

Our book that contains the song "New River Train"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "New River Train".
  2. The Traditional Ballad Index: "New River Train".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "OKeh matrix S-72341. The New River Train / Henry Whitter".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix B-31584. New River train / Kelly Harrell".
  5. Fingers Of Steel: "Maureen Sellers, Simply Duets".
  6. Image: [Artists' Excursion on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad], salted paper print from glass negative, 1858. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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