Very often on Sunday afternoons, for a number of years now, I have been attending a very nice old time jam session held at St. Paul's Church over in Brookline, Massachusetts. Everyone sits in a big circle, and we go around, each one calling out a tune to play when it is their turn. Almost every week, one of the guitar players will call out Elizabeth Cotten's Freight Train. I was pleased to see Jack post his careful, meticulous transcription. This is a performance that should not be lost to time.

Though Cotten also played the banjo, in her own unique style that she developed in order to play a right handed banjo left handed, she never recorded her signature tune on it. Over the years, though, I have heard a lot of banjo pickers transfer it to banjo, usually clawhammer style. I have been playing this on banjo for a long time. I don't know when I first worked it out, but I went looking for a tab, and found that I had written my arrangement down for a banjo student back in 2009. I couldn't find a recording of it, though. I've been recuperating from a minor operation I had about two weeks ago, and until a couple of days ago, I have been too weak and my arms too sore to pick up my banjo, much less play it.  Yesterday though, inspired by Jack, I did pick it up and started playing again. Freight Train is the only thing I've tried to play so far.  Here I am, playing it earlier this morning, three finger style without picks.  A little slow and a little rough, but I got it done!

Freight Train on Five String

I have attached a PDF of the tab; you can find the Tabledit (TEF) tab on my website:

Tab of Freight Train

I play all of tunes in the key of C in double C tuning (dCGCD) these days. I play on a semi-fretless banjo, and it's important that the middle C tonic be very clear. Plus, it's nice to have the open tonic there to grab when I am otherwise fretting up the neck.

I would love to see Jack put up a tab of Freight Train in clawhammer style, or whatever technique, it would be great to see how he interprets it.

That's enought of that, time to go nap!

Freight Train for 3 Finger Stye Banjo

 

Edited by - Jack Baker on 08/23/2026 12:52:05