Saturday, October 15, 2011

Steve Goodman: The City of New Orleans

Lately my friend Andrea Shea King has been concluding her BlogTalkRadio show with Willie Nelson's version of the "The City of New Orleans." But Steve Goodman wrote it. Watch as Johnny Cash introduces Goodman on a benefit show as the Chicagoan performs his classic in 1982--two years before his death at 36.

Vince Gill adds some harmony to the rendition.



Goodman wrote of the Illinois Central's old passenger line, the City of New Orleans, which ran from Chicago to the Crescent City--Amtrak operates it now.

As for the IC, it is steeped in history. Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer for the railroad, Casey Jones was an engineer for it, and less famously, so was one of my uncles.

The IC's southern route to New Orleans roughly parallels Interstates 55 and 57.

Related posts:

Steve Goodman: Daley's Gone
John Prine: My Old Man
My Mississippi Manifest Destiny: Johnny Cash's boyhood home
Johnny Cash: Battle Hymn of the Republic
Johnny Cash on the 1937 Mississippi River Flood: Five Feet High and Rising
Johnny Cash and Joni Mitchell: Girl from the North Country
Arlo Guthrie and Johnny Cash: Alice's Restaurant
Johnny Cash and June Carter: Jackson
Johnny Cash: Hurt
Johnny Cash: The Big Light
Johnny Cash - Ballad Of John Henry's Hammer
Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson: Sunday Morning Coming Down
Johnny Cash: Without Love

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