I confess I love train songs. Is that so bad?

Here’s Ken Perlman performing Reuben’s Train (and more) in Ireland.

Here’s a nice square-dancey stringband version of Reuben’s Train by the Hogslop stringband

Bluegrass freaks might say wait a minute, that’s Train 45 and so it is…. Let’s have a listen to the late Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys.

Is it coincidental that the decline of the train song in popular culture coincided with the decline of the American Empire?