January 29, 2010 8:40 AM PST
I listen to all kinds of rock/blues on me bike....but when i'm riding in the U.S one song i always have on my mp3 is Willie Nelson...Train they call the City of New Orleans, it just seems to fit long American roads. I once went thru death valley and i swear i repeated that tune 20 times....to me its like an American Anthem.
Rory, "City of New Orlean" is one of the top ten ever country / folk songs ever written. Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia about the song writer Steve Goodman.
...Goodman had been busy writing many of his most enduring songs, and this avid songwriting would lead to an important break for him. While at the Quiet Knight, Goodman saw
Arlo Guthrie, and asked to be allowed to play a song for him. Guthrie grudgingly agreed, on the condition that Goodman buy him a beer first; Guthrie would listen to Goodman for as long as it took Guthrie to drink the beer. Goodman played "
City of New Orleans",
(original lyrics) which Guthrie liked enough that he asked to record it. Guthrie's version of the song became a Top 20 hit in 1972, and provided Goodman with enough financial and artistic success to make his music a full-time career. The song, about the Illinois Central's
City of New Orleans train, would become an American standard, covered by such musicians as
Johnny Cash,
Judy Collins, and
Willie Nelson, whose recorded version earned Goodman a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1985....
----- arlo guthrie 