Saturday, August 21, 2010

Saturday Soundtrack: Who is Daddy Claxton?

When I was a kid in Florida I used to play this song on my mom's old martin guitar. The Carter Family used to blast this song into the U.S. from across the Mexican border back before the big radio networks would play country music. I've heard that early version of the song, and it seems just a little bit too tame for a song about a steam locomotive burning up the tracks on a cross-country drive to deilver the body of Daddy Claxton to Dixie. I think this version reveals the true nature of that thrain: Wild, too fast, almost ready to jump the tracks. And who was Daddy Claxton? Maybe Roy Acuff knows, since he was the first to ad thatverse to the song, the earlist recordings of the song by the Carter Family do not know Daddy Claxton. Nevertheless, "may his name forever stand."

1 comment:

Jim said...

I never get tired of Johnny Cash!!