This is such a great song on so many levels. I have sung about Casey Jones my whole life(Greatful Dead, Doc Watson, Fred Neil) and never knew who he was. For someone on Macjams to be so close to the story is amazing! Your obvious love and respect for the railroads and the men who made them roll is inspiring.
As to the music itself, I have never heard your voice sound better! Really wonderful singing! The guitar intro was very well done and nice to listen too. That Les Paul sustain is really going strong for you here. Nice drum loop and outstanding bass work. Just great work here, thanks!

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- I first got carried away by the tune as I like to listen in the dark with my eyes closed.Anything to do with the railway takes me back to a time when we were 'scruffy rockers' and used to walk home along live tracks witch is the stupidest thing anyone could do.But on older lines I used to look at the old ramshackle cabins dotted along the side for miles and wonder what was in them but wonder how I'd get to sleep if I tried to live in one,and what would be in there - porn? an ancient campstove or a newspaper or nothing.Theres an old film called Emperor of the North Pole with Lee Marvin involving hobos hopping trains that grabbed my imagination as a kid.Its on imdb if your'e interested.

This is superb - the song by itself carried me away and to read the story of Casey J afterwards added to its authenticity.I might go off on that link you mentioned your father sounds like an interesting man.Really intense backing vocals/guitar lead by the way - much like the doplar effect of a passing train blowing the horn.Thank you

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I love history, and music. This combines the best of both. It is a fascinated story, one which I haven't heard of before. I was a little but surprised of the choice of music composition, that in a positive way. The dark, almost eightees melodramatic vibes, together with the instruments of the time, is a well balanced act. I need to listen to it some more, but this is very, very good. I know your home town crowd will feel proud of you. Peace/M

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Absolutely evocative of the time and the strength and dedication of those men. The guitar is spot on, and the bass is - as ever - excellent. Nice vocal and nice sentiment in the lyrics. I love the image of the twisted rails. Very cool. The hometown crowd is going to love this! Nice work. Peace.

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this morning but the speakers at work are crappy. So i waited to hear it better this eve,

Like this thick background sound you got going. the voice cuts right through.

Somehow this gives me sense of a Neil Young influence.

When you're playing this, this summer are you playing with a band?
This should really go over big.

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Checking out some of your stuff and I have to say I like this one. Good lyrics, story telling. I also enjoy the guitar solo part. "Twisted Rails" is a very good title. enjoy it a lot. Thanks for checking me out, too.
Bravo
LL

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I think I m growin to be a big fan
of your grogious singing ... hmmmmmm
you are usin les pauls ...have you ever think
of Gretsch ? ... !

a great song and story ..thank you for this gem !!

peace !!

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explanation of the tune.

Thanks for sharing the tune and giving us more of the story of Casey Jones!

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tune & told so well both lyrically as well as the short history lesson you share - nice production and choice of sounds and tones to express the overall mood of the song - I live in a small town that has a hugh switching station w/ lots of local rail workers and lots of trains running 24/7 - again good tune and wishing you a great response w/ the home town crowd this august!

- Godchaser

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It's funny how some things can be brought back home with a song like this. 'Casey Jones' has become an icon, a caricature of a 'locomotive engineer' that has been Disnyfied to little more than a cartoon.

But he was a real guy, doing a real job that most people know little about. I wrote a novel, Dragon's Keeper, that incorporates much of the 'railroader culture' into the story. Railroading is dangerous work, and while it's less so today, it only makes me more impressed at the men who worked the rails in Jone's day. Few know that in the days of steam engines, in order to stop a train, a guy had to run along the roofs of boxcars, turning the brakewheels by hand... one by one. Imagine doing that in Wyoming in February at 2:am. But they did. It was their job.

This songs pays a huge debt of respect to Jones and his brethren. Excellent song. Good luck with the performance in August - this tune is a showstopper.

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Singing, playing and especially the song-writing, Joseph.
I also appreciate your description.

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I usually try and respond to everyone individually, and to return the favor of a listen and a comment with the same, but I've been busy the last week or so and haven't really had the time. But I really wanted to let everyone know just how much I appreciated all the feedback and support you've given me on this tune. I've wanted to do a song like this for a while, but I've never been really happy with what I've come up with before. This tune actually got kicked off when I was talking about wanting to write a song about Casey Jones and he said "Be sure you but a D minor chord in it. It's the sadest chord there is." So I started with that chord and the title "Twisted Rails" and the rest just kind of wrote itself.

This will be played live the first Saturday in August at our local summer festival. I'll be playing with my friend I mentioned above, who I played with in high school and college in a number of different bands, and a couple of other local folks. We'll be doing all original stuff, making our selections from tunes Ive posted here. I'm really looking foward to it. Hopefully, I'll have some live recordings that I'll be able to post after the event.

Thanks again to everyone who has listened, commented, voted or just dropped by.

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having a grandfather who worked on the railroad I always felt an affinity for Casey. The Grateful Dead didn't hurt either I suppose.
What a great song you've put together here - I rea;lly like the winding guitar line flowing throught the whole song like a twisted rail. Well done! It's great you get to perform this for a live audience. Let us all know hoe it goes.


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