Delmore Brothers "Freight Train Boogie" (1946)

Album: N/A
Label: King Records


Respectable tenant farmers' sons from Alabama, the Delmores' close family harmonies, once reverently rooted in gospel and Appalachian folk music, learn to rock'n'roll a decade too early, but don't hold that against them. By 1946, they had accrued a full band: bass, mandolin, steel guitar, fiddle, guitars. Electric guitar and drums wouldn't be added until a year later apparently, but they already had the beat down.

And that beat sounded like valve gears, high whistles, smokestack lightning: On the 1975 vinyl Gusto set Best Of The Delmore Brothers, emphasizing their boogie period, three songs out of 10 are train songs: “Pan American Boogie,” “Tennessee Choo Choo,” and this one, which is the most propulsive, jazzy breakdown and blues harmonica tooting from Wayne Raney on down.