Story Behind The Song

For years this was an acoustic instrumental I named "Hambone" because it reminded me of my Dad from a sharecropping family in North Carolina. One day I was playing it at my kitchen table for Wil Hodge (engineer extraordinare). He started on some words a

Song Description

Rootsy story song from birth to death with all major life events occurring with the sound of a train.

Lyrics

Sound Of The Train

Words by:
Robert A. Shabarekh and Wilton D. Hodge
Music by:
Robert A. Shabarekh

I was born in a field of corn
My momma used to say
She said and there were angels
With us that blessed day
Way off in the distance
Past the fields of grain
Momma said that I was born
To the sound of the train

Chorus:
Sound of the train
Sound of the train
Momma had herself a son
To the sound of the train

Instrumental

There?s a set of tracks
In the woods out back
Of the house my daddy built
We?d hear the horn
In the early morn
That train is running still
I can?t recall
A day at all
The train was ever late
The sound of the train
Sets the time of day

Chorus:
Sound of the train
Sound of the train
You can wind your watch
To the sound of the train

Instrumental

I courted Bonny Jane
One night we took a walk
We stopped under a trestle
It?s there that I recall
She told me she would love me
And she would take my name
My life changed forever
With the sound of the train

Chorus:
Sound of the train
Sound of the train
I became a man
To the sound of the train

Instrumental

I married Bonny Jane
I was proud to take her home
She?d cook and clean and care for me
One day on the phone
She said our baby?s coming
You?d better get here soon
I heard that child a cryin?
Underneath the moon

Chorus:
The sound of the train
Sound of the train
I became a dad
To the sound of the train

Instrumental

The Lord has been good to me
All these precious years
When he comes a callin?
I?ll be waiting here
Standing at the station
When He calls my name
And off in the distance
Is the sound of the train

Chorus:
Sound of the train
Sound of the train
I?ll hear the angels calling
To the sound of the train

Instrumental