Tag: Rowan McCabe

Oddly, the English folk-song tradition has very little to say about the railways, unlike the USA which embraced the permanent way in so many songs from ‘Casey Jones’ to ‘City Of New Orleans’. Passengers & Pioneers attempts to put that right but it’s not the album you might expect. It isn’t a dry history of the train nor a jokey jolly day out singalong. Rather it is a record about people; the people who worked on the railway but more especially, the people who rode the iron horse.

The songs are the work of Sam Slatcher from the North-East (where else?) with some lyrics drawn from other sources including stories gleaned from the artist-in-residence on the Stockton & Darlington Railway. Sam is multi-instrumentalist who plays almost every note aided only by Ola Piesnserco’s flute on one track.

The opener, ‘Pioneers’, was released as a single and, to my ear, it was mixed with that end in view but the mood changes with ‘A Train Meditation’, a long poem by Carmen Marcus spoken over the gentle rhythm of wheels on rails. A meditation: a reverie, almost a daydream which really sets the scene for the rest of the album. ‘I’m Going To See You’, with words by Lizzie Lovejoy, explores the reasons that people make train journeys and ‘My Dear Sister’, seemingly following that theme, actually takes us back to the 1830s.

‘Jubilee Celebrations’ is taken from the Newcastle Daily Chronicle of 1875 and read by Harry Gallagher followed by his poem ‘Train’ as the narrative moves in time. ‘Set The World On Track’ tells of a young man earning his living in the wagon works as his father and grandfather did before him. It could be set any time in the last 150 years but there are clues that make it more modern than ancient. This is one of the album’s big folk-rock arrangements. ‘Sleepers’ takes up the theme over a piano-driven accompaniment. Gallagher returns with another poem ‘Life As A Journey’ while ‘Stranger On A Train’ is an almost romantic moment that came to nothing. It’s a tender story again built on Sam’s piano, this time with flute decoration.

‘Passengers (Dreaming In September)’ is a story of three people riding the same train in the North-East and their dreams. I won’t spoil it for you. ‘The Poetry Train’ is a delightfully surreal poem by Rowan McCabe, followed by ‘Take Me Home’, another poem by Lovejoy to conclude the proceedings. This is preceded by a song by Slatcher with the same title and the distinction between poetry and song is, by now, lost completely.

Passengers & Pioneers is an intriguing and absorbing album. Perhaps you have to be a certain age to fully appreciate the magic that Sam Slatcher and The Railway Poets work to evoke but, me, I can smell a steam locomotive from here.

Dai Jeffries

Artist’s website: www.samslatcher.com/pioneers

‘I’m Going To See You’ – official video: