Ten Favorite Songs About Trains: A Railroad Bum (#8)

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I have two different series going now, both revolving around choo-choos. (And no, that song didn't make the list...pardon me, boy. ) One has the word train in the title; and this one is about trains without actually having train in the song's title. I mentioned this man and this album a couple of days ago, promising you he'd show up, and here he is. #8: A Railroad Bum - Jim Reeves As I said with the Jimmie Rodgers song, my first introduction to "Waiting for a Train" was the Jim Reeves recording. That wasn't the only railroad song on that classic 1962 album The Country Side of Jim Reeves, which, although being mostly new material, was issued immediately on the budget label because it was, ahem, country (hence, the title) and RCA was trying to push Reeves as a pop singer. Reeves didn't like it (there's a letter from him to a fan quoted in the Larry Jordan biography that details that), and a lot of his fans didn't like it; but for the record label, the results spoke for themselves: as a "pop" (or "less countrified" country) singer he had two million-sellers ("Four Walls" [hmm, that title looks familiar ] and "He'll Have to Go"). Given the hit that country music was taking with the advent of rock and roll (despite the fact that Elvis was signed to RCA and had several songs chart in country...and, in your worthless trivia department, when Elvis was discharged from the Army he went to Studio B for a recording session, and the logs had it as a Jim Reeves session to keep the fans and the press away), they were going to do anything they could to make the music more palatable. A lot of people blame Chet Atkins, and rightfully so, as the architect of the "Nashville sound," but he had willing accomplices at other labels (listen to early Patsy Cline, then later Decca versions of the same song that she had done as country on Four Star). So Reeves, as a big international star, was able to use a little muscle to keep recording country music, but RCA's answer was to ship it out on the budget "Camden" label. (They did that again in 1964, shortly before Reeves' death, with the album Good 'n' Country.) Well, as long as it got released. This is the song that opens the album, and it's a great opening. The only thing wrong with this song is the mix: the steel guitar of Pete Drake is so over mixed that it takes over the song and distracts from the rest of the song. But that's okay. After all, it is Jim Reeves. A Railroad Bum Written by J.A. Balthrop Recorded by Jim Reeves From The Country Side of Jim Reeves, 1962 Some Gentleman Jim for your dancing and dining pleasure: