ndlxs - Posted - 08/16/2018:  19:09:44

The tune of the week is Reuben’s Train; it is a standard Old Time and Bluegrass song.  It is normally a one-chord song.  Not only does it only have one chord, the entire melody is only 4 notes or so.  Most often it is played in D in D tuning on banjo: f#DF#AD or in G tuning: gDGBD.  I did my version differently: I play it in a clawhammer style in a bluegrass tuning: aDGBD, which is just G tuning with the fifth up to A so that I can play in D. I sometimes will capo up to the third fret and sing it in F, which is better for my voice, but here I do it in D.  I have also added a second part that I made up for variety.



First of all, my version:

youtube.com/watch?v=fYCkxY4t6y...=youtu.be



Here are the lyrics I do:

Old Reuben had a train & he put it on a track

You could hear that whistle blow 500 miles

Chorus

Oh me, oh my you could hear the whistle blow 500 miles (repeat last line of verse)

If my woman says so, won’t drink moonshine no more

I’ll take my axe tear my stillhouse down

Reuben had a dream that he was scalded by the

steam and it hurt him so badly that he cried

Old Reuben had a wreck, and it broke old Reuben's neck,

they put him in a graveyard of my own.

I got my razor blade, and laid Reuben in the shade,

his body ain’t never been found

I've been to the East, I've been to the West

I'm going where the chilly winds don't blow

She's standing in the door, and can’t see me any more

Lord how she hollered and she cried



Despite the monotonicity of this tune, it is still very popular and is still being recording anew by new generations. Bluegrass versions of this song tend to be tightly arranged and fast; old-time versions seem to be sparse and modal.  The one I do in A with the Piney Creek Weasels below is an old-time version of a bluegrass arrangement.



It is related to at least three other tunes: Train 45 (basically the same song), Nine Hundred Miles, Rain and Snow (“I ain’t a-gonna be treated this away”), and Blind Lemon Jefferson’s Jack of Diamonds (youtube.com/watch?v=7w_xyDw65To).



This song has accumulated verses from at least three different songs.  Long Steel Rail says the first type of verses as being about Reuben who is an “engineer with a drinking problem and occasionally other distasteful habits”.  Other verses are pleas for affection from a spouse or verses of a wanderer who is trying to get home. In my version, I tried to craft a narrative: He is an engineer, his wife tells him to stop drinking, he gets mad and does crazy things, he runs away and his wife cries.



The song may be from African Americans; it was first noticed being sung by two men in Florence County, South Carolina in 1905.  I have seen once source online on Natalie Spears’ website that describes the song as originating during reconstruction, as blacks began finding jobs on the railroad and then were forced out again.  She sources this in Alan Lomax in “Folk Songs of America”; I couldn’t find it in there.  She also quotes Tony Thomas from a source I couldn’t find, so perhaps if Tony reads this he can clarify this.



Bascam Lamar Lunsford, the banjo picking lawyer, remembers hearing a version sung in 1898 in Buncombe County, North Carolina.  He recorded in in 1925, but it appears to have not been released.



There is lots of speculation on the origins of the song on the Mudcat link below, including one suggesting it is about a Reuben Wells, a type of locomotive.  My thought: Oh sure…it’s about hardware, and not about people…



There are also numerous archived threads here on BHO about the song too.



Interestingly enough, there was an actual Ruben’s Train in France in the 1980s, named after the painter Peter Paul Rubens.  Not the guy who portrayed the beloved PeeWee Herman, who probably also deserves a train.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubens_(train)

Banjo Tabs:

Reuben, Clawhammer f#DF#AD by cmcnabb on BHO

banjohangout.org/tab/browse.as...p;v=17816

Reuben’s Train, Clawhammer aDGBD by Andrew Alexis

banjohangout.org/tab/browse.as...p;v=23268

Sources of information:

Mudcat

mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=161482

Library of Congress, notes to “Railroad Songs and Ballads”, page 9

loc.gov/folklife/LP/AFS_L61_opt.pdf

Book, Long Steel Rail, pages 503-517

amazon.com/Long-Steel-Rail-Rai...252068815

Book, Folk Songs of North America, Alan Lomax

amazon.com/Folk-Songs-North-Am...mp;sr=1-1

Natalie Spears

nataliespears.com/music-history/

Selective list of Recordings:

Emry Arthur “Reuben, Oh Reuben” (no banjo!)

youtube.com/watch?v=cq33Ybg-DVs

Banjo Bill Cornett

youtube.com/watch?v=9O0ORU29pro

Tommy Jarrell

youtube.com/watch?v=dIW28HUSf_o

Dock Boggs

youtube.com/watch?v=ATmVigPsbVU

Fiddlin’ John Carson

youtube.com/watch?v=TL0iGiHQ4xc

George "Shortbuckle" Roark

lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/321

Carolina Ramblers String Band

youtube.com/watch?v=__XWkmJkOqw

Grayson & Whittier (good singing on this, no banjo though)

youtube.com/watch?v=ZJL03BdPPbM

Wade Ward (great banjo playing with a rudimentary second part, no singing)

youtube.com/watch?v=4Vpmy2JJAaM

Wade Ward and Friends

research.culturalequity.org/ge...ngId=5905

Vestor Jones (nice 2 finger and clawhammer banjo, and a low low voice)

youtube.com/watch?v=tbDeDV7JKBU

Stanley Brothers (Bluegrass warning!)

youtube.com/watch?v=AMydc293aVU

Richie Stearns (of the Horse Flies)

youtube.com/watch?v=pOomk9PrTw4

Tony Thomas

youtube.com/watch?v=xhCfL7o9DZg

Piney Creek Weasels (me on banjo!)

youtube.com/watch?v=9u9qr9-xt84

rgoad - Posted - 08/16/2018:  19:42:49

Wow!  Great research!!  The story is that Earl Scruggs perfected his signature three fingered style on this tune.  I enjoyed reading it but can’t listen until tomorrow as my wife and kid have gone to bed. If I wake them up now I’ll be run 500 miles by my wife and my child and be wishing I was 500 more...

Bill Rogers - Posted - 08/16/2018:  20:10:38

Add to the family: Skillet Good and Greasy & Georgia Buck...doubtless a number of others.

sold1ode - Posted - 08/17/2018:  06:58:20

I Agree with earlier posts. I appreciate your research and the ornaments in your version of Reuben's Train. That said, I favor Dwight DIller's version which is, I believe, in standard G tuning. But thanks for your work on this great tune.

OldPappy - Posted - 08/17/2018:  09:34:18

While the tune may sound simple from looking at the tab, and simple notes, it is one of what I call a "Deceptively simple tune".

Getting the rhythm right, getting the sound of a steam driven rod engine locomotive chugging down the tracks, is a bit more than simple, at least for me.

I sure do like this tune, in all it's varieties, and appreciate all the links provided.

I too like Diller's rendition of the tune, but could not find a recording out there of him playing it.

Almost a decade ago I heard Dwight and Caleb Diller play this tune together, Dwight on fiddle, and Caleb on banjo, and boy howdy was it good! Something about father son harmony I suppose.

mjt0229 - Posted - 08/17/2018:  11:58:06

Great info, thanks for the write-up! The Tommy Jarrell video is priceless, and I've always liked Richie's take on the tune, too.

Here's a pretty nice version by a modern banjo player:

youtube.com/watch?v=UUcI0y_73eg

I think he's playing it pretty close to the tab that's in Brad Leftwich's book. I made my own (much less exciting and much sloppier) recording based on that tab here:

youtube.com/watch?v=FfG0fH_3-SY

I think I dropped a beat along the way there, oops.

JanetB - Posted - 08/17/2018:  17:56:57

Thanks for all the history, links, and recordings, including yours, Andy --  A+ job!  Your penned lyrics reveal the sad story behind the song that I didn't really know before.  Nicely played in your video, Mark T.

A few years ago Joe Newberry taught this at a music camp based on field recordings of Fred Cockerham.  The train sounds are unique and include harmonics.  He called it Old Reuben and plays it pretty fast in f#DF#AD tuning.  Joe Newberry plays Old Reuben

My recording was done after learning Old Reuben from Joe.  It's slower, as is the recording linked above by Emry Arthur (1902 - 1967).  

Old Reuben

 

cmic - Posted - 08/18/2018:  00:19:40

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bill Rogers

Add to the family: Skillet Good and Greasy & Georgia Buck...doubtless a number of others.

---

Skillet Good And Greasy: are you sure. I play Doc Watson version (2 FTL) and I don't find similarities between theses tunes. As for Georgia buck, I don't know.

Cheers

Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 08/18/2018:  01:50:47

Dwight Diller playing Reuben's Train:

dwightdiller.bandcamp.com/trac...ens-train

from Just Banjo '99 by Dwight Diller

BobTheGambler - Posted - 08/18/2018:  08:17:43

quote:

---

Originally posted by cmic

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bill Rogers

Add to the family: Skillet Good and Greasy & Georgia Buck...doubtless a number of others.

---

Skillet Good And Greasy: are you sure. I play Doc Watson version (2 FTL) and I don't find similarities between theses tunes. As for Georgia buck, I don't know.

Cheers

---

I really don't think these tunes are in the same family as Reuben either.

Bill Rogers - Posted - 08/18/2018:  22:00:34

Sure they are. Interchange the tunes and lyrics. You’ll hear how they’re similar.

Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 08/19/2018:  07:40:15

Here are several different recordings I have done of this tune. They all use Open C tuning, or the equivalent intervals at another pitch:

This is the most recent:

This one has some interesting "one man band" instrumentation:

It appears twice in this video, once played on the small fretless banjo pictured here that I took with me to West Africa in 1981, and the other on the Dogon banjo like instrument, called the kona, that I brought back with me from that same trip to West Africa, that I discovered was played using clawhammer technique:

Edited by - Marc Nerenberg on 08/19/2018 07:50:39