A Thousand Freight Trains
A father quietly tells about his experience on their small farm near a prairie town (Cimarron County) as the worst natural disaster of the 20th century unfolds. He whispers as it's hard for him to believe he and his brood have escaped the devastation
Is there a nationality 'Hawaiian/Canadian'? Well actually I'm a full fledged Canadian but do love our alternate home in Hawai'i. A Musician all my life, I now finally have the time and am in the right place to get some of the songs I've had in me out to the world, rather than just in my head (are they really in there, or am I in the Matrix?)
Story behind the song
The Music and Story married very naturally in this co-write. Not a single word was changed, which is quite rare when collaborating. The music was in fact written in an afternoon and many coffee's later played by myself at the piano and the accompanying instruments. Sung the following day, the original intent was to have an older gent with a brittle voice sing the prose but I did want to get the work completed so made my best effort to muse the story.
Lyrics
First floor’s buried underground
Pickup’s gone, can’t be found
So, stuff them rags between them boards
We’ll live tomorrow as God’s reward
But when that dust came barreling down
Like a thousand freight trains, it buried the town
And when it passed our tiny farm
No one dead, no one harmed
We worked this homestead day and night
Crop was good, future bright
All my brood done good in school
Had some cash, bought two mules
But when that dust came barreling down
Like a thousand freight trains, it buried the town
And when it passed our tiny farm
No one dead, no one harmed
Now we weathered this storm, we done it before
Start again, shovel the floor
Can of beans ‘tween all the kids
Two little tikes still in cribs
But when it passed our tiny farm
No one dead, no one harmed
Cimarron County’s a wasteland now
Buried the goat and the cow
Dug the tractor outta the sand
First with a shovel, then by hand
Broke as broke, as broke can be
Black blizzard’s gonna be the death of me
And when it passed our tiny farm
No one dead, no one harmed
