Railroad Blues (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "Every time you hear me sing this song, You may know I've caught a train and gone." A letter tells the singer his love is sick. He tries to get home. The Big Four in Dallas has burned down. He will soon be gone; a man in trouble always takes a freight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Journal of American Folklore)
KEYWORDS: railroading nonballad love floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 216-219, "The Railroad Blues"(1 text, from "Floyd Canada," which is also called the "American Iliad" because of its long, wandering nature; it probably started with a shorter form of this blues and greatly expanded it)
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 74-75, "Railroad Blues" (1 text)
Roud #8902
File: CoCo074

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