Train a Comin'

Steve Earle

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 28, 1997)
• Original Release Date: 1995
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002NAV
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,731 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #33 in	Music > Indie Music > Country > Alt-Country & Americana
  #42 in	Music > Rock > Singer-Songwriters
  #54 in	Music > Folk > Singer-Songwriters

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
Steve Earle's first record after emerging from artistic struggles, prison, and addiction, 1995's Train A-Comin' finds an artist starting from scratch and returning to the very basics of his musical vision. The low-key, charming, all-acoustic support comes from veterans Peter Rowan, Norman Blake, and Roy Huskey, while Earle's original material dates as far back as 1974--he wrote "Mercenary Song," he notes, while still working at Ciraco's Pizza. The mix of covers--Beatles, Townes Van Zandt, and the "Jamaican hillbilly" of "Rivers of Babylon" (with Emmylou Harris chiming in)--proves he had one primary listener in mind: himself. With no expectations thrust upon him, no labels involved, and very few at the time bothering to listen, Earle mined a raw gem. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of 10 I would bring to the desert island...., August 23, 1999

By A Customer

Train catches the essential Earle. Great musicians on this album. Fantastic stories, good music, wonderful "comback" compilation of old and new. I was priviliged to see SE in his first live show after getting out of the grey bar hotel at the Vic in Chicago. Still the best show I have ever seen. He was truely moved on several occasions and once had to turn his back to the crowd because of it. I have been to dozens of shows in my day but never experieced a show where they turned on the lights to the theater and turned on the recorded music, and nobody left. SE came on for a 4th encore and said " I don't know where your staying tonight but it can't be here, so I'll do one more and you got to promise to go". Well he went into a acoustic version of Someday and made everyones night. What a great album and eclectic talent.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Warm And Personal Album, April 2, 2001

By	Steve Vrana (Aurora, NE) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Steve Earl opens the album by declaring: "This here's the 'Hometown Blues' with apologies to Thomas Wolfe and Doc Watson," and then presents the listener with the warmest and perhaps most personal album of this country renegade's career. It had been four years since his last studio album, 1991's The Hard Way, and almost a decade since his 1986 debut Guitar Town. For this comeback effort, Earle strips things down to the roots. The band consists of a Who's Who of country, folk and bluegrass musicians: Norman Blake (guitar, Dobro, fiddle, mandolin and Hawaiian guitar), Peter Rowan (mandolin, mandola, gut string guitar and vocals), Roy Husky (accoustic bass) and Emmylou Harris (vocals). The album is a mixture of originals like "Mercenary Song" and "Ben McCulloch," and covers like Townes Van Zandt's "Tecumseh Valley" and a wonderful version of the Beatles' "I'm Looking Through You." If you enjoyed Earle's 1999 collaberation with the Del McCoury Band on The Mountain, you'll love Train a Comin'. In 1986 three artists released their debuts: Dwight Yoakam, Randy Travis and Steve Earle. I thought they would save country music. If they haven't succeeded, they at least have helped preserve its integrity. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential, February 23, 2006

By	J. Gemmill "Fan of music, movies and more." (Oreland, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"This ain't my unplugged record!" Steve writes in the liner notes to this gem, originally released in '95. It's a collection of songs old and new, and a few covers, performed primarily on acoustic tours. There's nary a bad track; and the good ones... they'll haunt you long after the album's over. A case in point: "Goodbye." Emmylou Harris does a near-definitive version of it on her Wrecking Ball album, but here... Steve's understated vocals bypass the brain in favor of the heart, recalling all of the folks left behind but carried with us, still. For that song alone, this CD is a necessary addition to any self-respecting fan's collection; add in the story-song "Ben McCulloch," his masterful take of Townes' Van Zandt's "Tecumsah Valley" and his duet with Emmylou on "Rivers of Babylon"... this is one of those albums that you put in the CD player to listen to and end up listening to it two, three, four times in a row.