Reuben's Train

DESCRIPTION: Lyric piece about Reuben's train and travels. Versions vary widely; most contain a verse something like this: "Reuben had a train and he put it on the track, Hear the whistle blow a hundred miles."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Grayson & Whitter, as "Train 45")
KEYWORDS: train nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 503-517, "Reuben's Train/Train 45/900 Miles" (2 texts plus excerpts equivalent to about three more, 2 tunes; the first text is close to "Reuben's Train," the second to "Nine Hundred Miles," but the article is mostly devoted to showing how the two songs mix)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 236, "Reuben's Train" (2 texts, with "A" being closer to "Nine Hundred Miles" than "B")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 236, "Reuben's Train" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 133, "Reuben's Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #64, "Old Reuben" (1 text, 1 tune, with an extremely high number of floating verses)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 32, "Old Reuben" (1 text, 1 tune, with so many verses characteristic of both "Reuben's Train" and "Nine Hundred Miles" that I'm filing it with both)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 34-36, "Reuben" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 302, "Reuben" (1 text, 1 tune)
MidwestFolklore, Bruce R. Buckley, "'Uncle' Ira Cephas -- A Negro Folk Singer in Ohio," Volume 3, Number 1 (Spring 1953), pp. 14-15, "Ruben" (1 text, an incredible mix of floating material that, in the absence of a tune, might as well go here)
Roud #3423
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Reuben Oh Reuben" (Paramount 3295, c. 1931; on BefBlues2)
Dock Boggs, "Ruben's Train" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1)
Carolina Ramblers String Band, "Ruben's Train" (Banner 33085/Romeo 5345/Oriole 8345/Perfect 12818/Melotone M-13047; rec. 1932)
Bill Cornett ,"Old Reuben" (on MMOKCD)
Elizabeth Cotten, "Ruben" (on Cotten02)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Train 45" (Victor 21189, 1928, rec. 1927, on GraysonWhitter01) (Gennett 6320, 1927/Champion 15447 [as by Norman Gayle], 1928)
Vester Jones, "Old Reuben" (on GraysonCarroll1)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers [or Wade Mainer], "Riding on Train Forty-Five" (Bluebird B-7298, 1937; Victor 27493, 1941)
Wade Mainer & the Sons of the Mountaineers, "Old Reuben" (Bluebird B-8990, 1941)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Riding on That Train 45" (on NLCR06, NLCRCD2; on ClassRR [as "Train 45"])
Poplin Family, "Reuben" (on Poplin01)
Wade Ward, "Old Reuben" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1)
Doc Watson, "Old Ruben" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nine Hundred Miles"
cf. "Rain and Snow"
SAME TUNE:
Jack O'Diamond Blues (recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Old Reuben
NOTES [125 words]: I know two tunes for this piece. One resembles "Nine Hundred Miles" and "Rain and Snow"; these three songs seems to have cross-fertilized (so much so, in fact, that I literally cannot tell which one was the more direct ancestor of the Grayson & Whitter recording; I placed it there almost arbitrarily).
The other is that used by Frank Proffitt, who said of it, "This is one of the oldest simple banjo tunes.... It was generally the first tune learned, by playing two strings. There are about fifty different verses to this" (quoted by Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl).
G. B. Grayson is said to have turned "Reuben's Train" into "Train 45" -- but they are still so close that I think they can be considered one song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Wa133

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