Wabash Cannonball, The

DESCRIPTION: In praise of the amazing Wabash Cannonball, a train which can apparently accomplish anything. The song mentions various places the train visits and the impression it makes on the townsfolk. It may close with a eulogy for "Daddy Claxton"
AUTHOR: Original ("The Great Rock Island Route") credited to J. A. Roff; rewritten as "Wabash Cannon Ball," perhaps by William Kindt, who copyrighted it; Cohen suspects the rewrite preceded Kindt's 1904 publication, and common tune is not the same as either Roff's or Kindt's
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (sheet music, as "The Great Rock Island Route"; first use of the "Wabash Cannonball" title is Kindt, in 1904)
KEYWORDS: train railroading travel
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 373-381, "The Wabash Cannonball" (2 texts, one of them Kindt's, plus a text and sheet music cover of Roff's "The Great Rock Island Route," 1 tune)
Randolph 840, "The Wabash Cannonball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 385-386, "The Wabash Cannonball" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 840)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 220, "The Wabash Cannon Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 462, "The Wabash Cannonball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 85, "Wabash Cannonball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 100 "The Wabash Cannonball" (1 text)
DT, WABASHCB*
Roud #4228
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff & his Crazy Tennesseeans, "Wabash Cannon Ball" (Vocalion 04466/OKeh 04466/Conqueror 9121. 1938; Columbia 37008, 1946; rec. 1936) [despite the band title, Dynamite Hatcher sang lead on this recording]
Roy Acuff & his Smoky Mountain Boys, "Wabash Cannonball" (Columbia 37008/Columbia 37598/Columbia 20034, 1947) [Note: Some pressings of these issues used the Vocalion/OKeh master listed above]
Loy Bodine, "Wabash Cannon Ball" (Superior 2608. 1931)
Bill Carlisle's Kentucky Boys, "Wabash Cannon Ball" (Decca 5713/Melotone [Canada] 45326, 1939; Decca 46045, 1947)
The Carter Family, "Wabash Cannonball" (Victor 23731, 1932; Montgomery Ward M-7444, 1938; Bluebird B-8350, 1940; rec. 1929)
Clark & Edans, "Wabash Cannonball" (Gennett, unissued, 1928)
Hugh Cross, "Wabash Cannonball" (Columbia 15439-D, 1929) (Vocalion 5377 [as "The Wabash Cannon Ball], c. 1928)
Delmore Brothers, "The Cannon Ball" (Bluebird B-7991/Montgomery Ward M-7677, 1939; rec. 1938); "The Wabash Cannon-Ball Blues" (Bluebird B-8404/Montgomery Ward M-7832, 1940)
Charlie Glenn, Shirley Glenn, "Wabash Cannonball" (Piotr-Archive #183, recorded 06/06/2022)
Roy Hall & his Blue Ridge Entertainers, "Wabash Cannonball" (Vocalion 04717/Conqueror 9230, 1938)
Bill Mooney & his Cactus Twisters, "Wabash Cannonball" (Imperial 1150, n.d.)
Morris Brothers, "Wabash Cannonball - No. 2" (Bluebird B-8252, 1939)
Pete Seeger, "Wabash Cannonball" (on PeteSeeger17)
Art Thieme, "Wabash Cannonball" (on Thieme04)
Doc Watson, "Wabash Cannonball" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchieWatsonCD1, ClassRR)
Mac Wiseman, "Wabash Cannonball" (Dot 1262, 1950s)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gatesville Cannonball" (tune)
cf. "We Work for Hay and Company" (tune)
cf. "The Boys at Ninety-Five" (tune)
cf. "The Gospel Cannonball" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
"Hail! Ye Brave Industrial Workers" (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 178)
"We Work for Hay and Company" (File: FowL26)
The Grand Coulee Dam (by Woody Guthrie) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 292-293; DT, GRNCOULE; Greg Vandy with Daniel Person, _26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest_, Sasquatch Books, 2016, p. 32; (Woody Guthrie), __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 44-45)
Delmore Brothers, "Gospel Cannon Ball" (Decca 5970, 1941; Decca 46049, 1947)
Charles Stowe, "Carolina Cannonball" (on OBanks1)
The Mine at Baie Verte (File: Guig263)
Boomtown Bill (by Woodie Guthrie) (on Keynote 5000, 1942?; in Archie Green, "Woody's Oil Songs," published in Archie Green, editor, _Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss_, Folklore Institute, Indiana University, 1993, p. 213)
The White Ghost Train (by Woody Guthrie; tune conjectured by Pete Seeger) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 84-85, with Seeger's notes on p. 83)
File: R840

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