david rawlings, “midnight train
from: poor david almanac, 2019
“The midnight train and the forty train
Run all night long
The midnight train and the forty train
Run all night long
They run
Until the break of day
The little wheels and the great big wheels
Turn all night long
The little wheels and the great big wheels
Turn all night long
They turn
Until the break of day
The one you left and the one you love
Cries all night long
The one you left and the one you love
Cries all night long
She cries until the break of day
This love of mine little light of mine
Shines all night long
Love of mine little light of mine
Shines all night long
It shines until the break of day
”
Distinguished, low down, elfin, tasteful, penetrating. The adjectives don’t stop with this guy. To start playing, Rawlings "scavenged" his guitar from a friend's garage and is now hardly seen playing anything else. As he states, "I just picked it up. It was filthy, and it didn't have strings. You could just see the shape of it under the sawdust." Rawlings had a new one piece bridge made for it and brought it to a recording session for Welch's first record. "As soon as I heard it through the microphone and through the speakers I was like, 'I love this guitar.'" His musical partnership with Gillian Welch is like a union of watercolors: as the pigments blend they still remain inherently distinct.
