Volume 2, No. 13. July 12, 2002
A real
soul train
When the Tweetsie Railroad blows its whistle, what once could only be
heard echoing down the mountain passes around Blowing Rock, North Carolina,
will now play forth from boomboxes and stereo systems around the world.
The antique train
and the theme park named for it could be heading for the Billboard charts thanks
to a decision the park's executive vice president and general manager, Chris
Robbins, made when he planned out a visiting concert series at the park. He
knew one of the musical acts had to be Riders In The Sky . The western swing
and country folk band’s demographics—let alone its name—were
a natural fit for the mountainside family theme park centered on a Wild West
train ride. Robbins secured the band for his first concert series in 1997, and
the Riders have returned every year since.
“Typically,
one of our biggest weekends is when Riders In The Sky are here,” Robbins
said. “They have a devoted following: not quite as much as the Grateful
Dead, but close to that. I know people in Pennsylvania who plan their summer
vacations around seeing the Riders here.”
Robbins didn’t
know just how much the band reciprocated those feelings for the theme park until
last year when he was driving them to the park’s concert venue. “They
asked me, ‘would Tweetsie be interested in having a Tweetsie Rider In The
Sky album,’” Robbins said. “I didn’t think twice. I said,
‘Absolutely.’ I was flattered.”
“This is an
idea that the guys and I have been kicking around for years,” said bass
player Too Slim. On the subsequent album’s cover art, shot at Tweetsie,
the band members touts their affection for the park, saying it is one of the
few gigs for which they bring along their children and significant others.
Released this week
and for sale on the band’s Web site and at their concerts, as well as on
Tweetsie’s Web site and in the park’s souvenir stores, Ridin’
the Tweetsie Railroad features three new compositions about the park: “Tweetsie
Railroad Line,” “Ghost Train” and “Tweetsie Junction.”
With its focus on railroad songs, both legendary and new, the album also has
“Wabash Cannonball,” “Orange Blossom Special” and “Casey
Jones,” songs that, though popular staples of Riders concerts, the band
had never before recorded.
This is Riders’ second collaboration with a theme park. The band won a Grammy Award last year for Woody’s Roundup Featuring Riders In The Sky, the soundtrack of a live Disneyland show (THE LOOP, February 23, 2001). Will the popular band bring similar fame to Tweetsie? Robbins—who, for the record, loves the album: “My favorite is ‘Tweetsie Railroad Line’ for obvious reasons, but also its a catchy song that you can’t get out of your head”—dens’t aim for such grandeur. “I told the members of the band, ‘Nobody outside the Southeast is going to know what Tweetsie Railroad is.’ They said, ‘That may or may not be true, but it doesn't’ matter to our fan base; they get the latest album no matter what it’s called.’"
©2002, Minton Enterprises LLC
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