Train on the Island
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Standard Notation
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Mandolin Tablature
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Standard Notation
Mandolin Tablature
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American
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
Train on the Island,
Listen to it squeal,
Go and tell my true love
How happy I do feel.
Chorus:
Train on the Island,
Hear that whistle blow,
Go and tell my true love
I'm sick and I can't go.
Bring me a drink of water,
Bring it in a cup,
Me and my gal we fell out,
We ain't never gonna make up.
Chorus
Train on the Island,
Heading to the west,
Me and my gal we fell out,
Perhaps it's for the best.
Chorus
Make me a banjo out of a gourd,
String it up with twine,
The only tune that I can play,
I wish that gal was mine.
Chorus
Show me the crow that flies so high,
Show me one that falls,
If I don't get the gal I love,
I don't want none at all.
Chorus
Went up on the mountain,
Went out on the plain,
Went up on the other side
To hear my darlin' sing.
Chorus
Yonder comes my true love,
How do you reckon I know,
I tell her by her apron strings,
Tied up in a double bow.
Chorus
"Train on the Island" is an old-time/bluegrass banjo and fiddle tune originally found<br> in western North Carolina, southwestern Va. (Galax, Round Peak) and Tenessee.<br> In his book When We Were Good, Robert Cantwell suggests the name of the tune was<br> adapted (by Nestor?) from the Irish reel "Lady on the Island".<br> The rhythms of the first measures bring to mind "Winder Slide" by Joe LaRose.<br> The structure is unique in that it is a crooked tune with 12 measures and only an A<br> part.<br> The first recording was a field recording made in a make-shift studio in Bristol,<br> Tenessee by Ralph Peer for Victor records during the famous 1927 Bristol Sessions<br> on August 1, 1927 of J.P. Nestor (banjo) and Norman Edmonds (fiddle). They recorded<br> four songs and Nestor never recorded again.<br> In 1927 Crockett Ward and his Boys also made a recording. Ward used the melody of<br> "June Apple", which also borrows lyrics from "Train on the Island". Other recordings<br> include: The Iron Mountain String Band, Tommy Jarrell, The Kimble Family, Walt Koken,<br> Velma Nester, The New Ballard's Branch Bogtrotters, The New Lost City Ramblers,<br> Matokie Slaughter, Stephen Wade, The Ward Brothers, The Wildcats,<br> Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, Todd Phillips, Atwater and Donnelly, The Mother Bay<br> State Entertainers, The Double Decker String Band, Joe Hickerson and Peggy Seeger.<br> It was printed in Burke's Old Time Fiddle Tunes for Banjo (1968),<br> Krassen, Miles / Appalachian Fiddle (1973), <br> Hellman, Neal / Dulcimer Songbook (1977),<br> Perlman, Ken / Fingerpicking Fiddle Tunes for Finger Style Guitar (1978), <br> Brody, David (ed.) / Fiddler's Fakebook (1983) and<br> Trischka, Tony / Melodic Banjo (1976).<br> The recording of J. P. Nestor was reproduced in the Anthology of American Folk Music.<br>
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