Name: Rocket To Chicago
Duration: 4 min 14 s
Channel: Michael Hawkeye Herman
Description: "Rocket To Chicago" is a song by Michael Hawkeye Herman. This is a contemporary slide guitar tune that is in the great blues tradition of train songs.

Rocket To Chicago

Michael Hawkeye Herman

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This is a contemporary slide guitar tune that is in the great blues tradition of train songs.

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Michael Hawkeye Herman

Michael Hawkeye Herman: Blues Musician

"Herman plays with a sensitive, reflective touch that continually draws attention to his vocals, which are effectively understated and free of affectation... Herman can rock with the best of them. A solid choice for fans of traditional acoustic blues." - Living Blues Magazine "One of America's finest acoustic guitarists and blues educators." - Cascade Blues Association "...an uncanny grasp of so many different Blues styles." - Holler, Colorado Blues Society "Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, and Muddy Waters were giants of the genre he grew up listening to and who live on through the evocative, haunting acoustic slide-guitar style he plays." - The Reporter, San Diego, CA "...plays haunting music on a mournful guitar." - Los Angeles Times "...plays a powerful variety of hard-driving acoustic blues, a crowd pleaser." - Mississippi Valley Blues News "...a mean, clean guitar picker." - San Francisco Examiner "The only thing better than hearing this live album is seeing Hawkeye Herman in the flesh. Whether adding his own spin to blues classics or offering his own songs, Herman is a one-man history of blues, noteworthy guitar player and inimitable communicator. Miss him at your peril." - Blues Access "Each song is presented with a heartfelt depth rarely witnessed these days amongst all the amplifiers and studio embellishments... Throughout "Blues Alive!," Herman proves to be a seasoned storyteller above all, as well as an accomplished guitarist." - Blues Revue Magazine "Playing both fingerpick and slide guitar, Herman's licks are clean, yet spare..., his vocals are direct and straightforward, but full of emotion... he has immersed himself in the sound and feeling and has emerged as one of the most widely respected acoustic blues musicians around... Blues Alive! ain't electric, doesn't have drums and such, wasn't produced in a high-tech studio, but it's about as real as the blues gets." - Sing Out!

Song Info

Genre

Blues • Country Blues

Charts

Peak #88

Peak in subgenre #15

Author

Michael Hawkeye Herman

Rights

Uploaded

March 25, 2005

Track Files

MP3

MP3 3.9 MB • 128 kbps • 4:14

Story behind the song

I grew up in Rock Island, IL ... The Rock Island Railroad was the heartbeat of the region. All their passenger trains were called "Rockets" ... Chicago Rocket, Des Moines Rocket, the Golden State Rocket, etc.

I grew up with the sounds of those trains as a backdrop to my life in the Midwest.

Lyrics

Winter mornin', silent snow,
The Chicago Rocket is moanin' low. 
Across the river and past the Fort, 
Rolling east out of Davenport. 
Out of Davenport. Out of Davenport. (That train used to ring her bell when she crossed Government Bridge over the Mississippi River between Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois. I could hear that bell cutting through the night.) 

This old train is running late, 
as she rolls into the Prairie State. 
Rock Island, Moline, East Moline, 
When she clears the yards she's gonna pick up steam. 
She's gonna pick up steam out of East Moline. (That train had to move real slow through the Quad Cities, and on through the Silvis railroad yards. But when she got out toward Greenrock, Illinois, there was nothing but corn fields all the way to Chicago. And she could really roll under a full head of steam.) 

Elgin, Joliet, LaSalle / Peru, 
This old train gonna roll right through. 
Steel wheels grinding down the railroad track, 
Listen to 'em now going clickety-clack. 
Goin' clickety-clack, down the railroad track. (Hear them drivin' wheels. Steel wheels on steel rails, popping the joints in the track. That's what makes that clickety-clack sound, and it sounds like music to me.) 

(Twenty-five miles southwest of Chicago is a little town called Blue Island, Illinois. When the train got to Blue Island she had to start cutting back on the speed and steam, 'cause she was getting close to home, the LaSalle Street Station in downtown Chicago. They way the slowed that train down was with air brakes. I said airrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr brakes.) 

"Chicago city" the conductor said, "LaSalle Street Station is up ahead." 
It's the end of the line and the end of my song, 
'Cause the old Rock Island is dead and gone. 
She's dead and gone, she's dead and gone. (I think I hear that train coming through just one last time. She's twenty miles out, on the west side of Davenport, near a little town called,Durant, Iowa. I hear her blowing that whistle long and lonesome, way off in the distance.) 
"Chicago city" the conductor said, "LaSalle Street Station is up ahead." 
It's the end of the line and the end of my song, 
'Cause the old Rock Island is dead and gone. 
She's dead and gone, she's dead and gone. 
(When I stepped off that train in Chicago there was a guy selling newspapers. He said, "Hey man, where did you get on this train?" I said, "Davenport." He said, "Say what?" I thought Davenport, Iowa was the center of the universe at that time. How could he not know where Davenport is? So, I said it again. "Davenport." He said again, "Say what?" Well, I took out my National guitar, put the slide on the pinky of my left hand, looked him in the eye, and decided to give this guy a lesson in Heartland geography.) 
"Davenport! Daven-port!! Da-ven-port!!!"

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