7369 old music 2402 - KET

Program 13
Reel World
String Band
Instruments: fiddle, banjo, guitar
Last Old Train
(Jean Ritchie)
A primary element of all Reel World performances is the inclusion of songs that
express our concerns for preserving the southern Appalachian heritage and
environmental beauties of the region. Jean Ritchie is not only a brilliant folk singer
and performer, but also a commanding songwriter who voices these concerns.
“Last Old Train” is a song written by Jean and recorded in 1974 on Clear Waters
Remembered. The album is a collection of Jean Ritchie originals and old songs
from the Ritchie family repertoire.
Several of the songs written by Jean decry the onslaught of the bulldozers and
the grinding auger, machinery used to strip-mine coal. She states in the album’s
liner notes that the smoke and the dust of this machinery “hang like a pall of sorrow
over the ridges and hollers of Eastern Kentucky.”
With the land scarred and mutilated, the youth of Eastern Kentucky seek their
fortunes in urban settings. “Last Old Train” is in response to this flight to the cities.
The song lyrically describes the natural mountain richness that continues in spite of
man’s destruction. The redbud in bloom and the new ground turned in the
springtime give cause for the mountaineer to stay.
Standing on a mountain
Standing on a mountain
Standing on a mountain
Don’t you want to go?
Chorus:
Oh, the last old train’s a-leaving (3 times)
Don’t you want to go?
Hear the hills a-falling (3 times)
Don’t you want to go?
Hear the night birds calling (3 times)
And I don’t want to go.
(chorus)
See the timber burning (3 times)
Don’t you want to go?
See my new ground turning (3 times)
And I don’t want to go.
(chorus)
See the people going (3 times)
Don’t you want to go?
See the redbuds glowing (3 times)
And I don’t want to go.
(chorus)
Standing on a mountain (3 times)
Don’t you want to go?
KET, The Kentucky Network 47