Useful Folk Train Related Sites:

Folk Train History:

  • 24 April 2001 visit to the Old Nag’s Head 
  • August 2001 Spain
  • 22 January 2002  Ireland
  • September 2005 North Derbyshire and South Yorkshire
  • October 2006 Sheffield Folk Festival
  • June 2007 The Day after the big flood. The Folk Train was cancelled.
  • October 2007 New Mills Town Hall
  • October 2008 The Sheffield Folk Festival   
  • Wessex Folk Festival
  •  ...more

Artist's Sites:

 

Folk Train History

Manchester - Hathersage Folk Train

Train departs Manchester Piccadilly at 1145 calling at all stations from Reddish North to Hathersage. The band plays at the Little John Hotel, Hathersage. Return on the 1432 train from Hathersage, calling at all the same stations, except Strines, arriving at Manchester Piccadilly at 1532.

Saturday 11 April 2009 with the Rainy City Bluegrass Band
 Traditional bluegrass at its best.

Saturday 2 May 2009 with The Duffers
Lively traditional music plus the Crown Rapper Sword dancers.

Saturday 23 May 2009 community rail month event with Dom Colins
Excellent comedy solo performer

Saturday 6 June 2009 with Blue Heart
Country, blues and bluegrass

Saturday 20 June 2009 with Nelson Peach
Traditional and American folk music.

Train Schedules (coming)

Events, train schedules and Travel Information by City:

Recommended:   Folk Music Books

     

    History Of Folk Music

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Past News:

No Folktrain to Nashville

Train to Nashville? You can't get there from here.

Unfortunately and ironically, you can't take a passenger train to Nashville, home of more train songs than just about anywhere else.

To address our Nation's preposterous transportation policy, in which all other modes of transportatyion are heavily subsidized yet Amtrak alone is expected to be "profitable," please consider joining the National Association of Railroad Passengers (http://www.narprail.org).

Instead of the FolkTrain,  we'll be concentrating our efforts on ROOTS ON THE RAILS - The Transcontinental Roots Music Festival March 10-14. visit www.rootsontherails.com for details

Amtrak does offer "service" to Nashville, in the form of buses that connect to its trains from two directions - Atlanta and Jefforsonville, KY (Louisville).

From the Northeast:

Amtrak train #19(south)/20(north), The Crescent

  • Lv. NY 2:25 pm
  • Lv. Philadelphia 4:35 pm
  • Lv. Wilmington, DE 4:57 pm
  • Lv. Baltimore 5:59 pm
  • Lv. Washington, DC 7:10 pm
  • Ar. Atlanta 8:58 am
  • Lv. Atlanta (bus - leaves from train station) 12:01 pm
  • Ar. Nashville 5:30 pm

returning, lv. Nashville 10 am, arrive Atlanta 5:00 pm,

  • Lv. Atlanta 8:06 pm
  • Ar. DC 10:00 am
  • Ar. Baltimore 10:40 am
  • Ar. Wilmingotn 11:32 am
  • Ar. Philadelphia 12:25 pm
  • Ar. New York 2:12 pm
These trains connect to service from Buffalo, Boston, Hartford, etc.

From the Midwest:

Amtrak train #850(south)/851(north), The Kentucky Cardinal

  • Lv. Chicago 7:55 pm
  • Ar. Louisville 7:40 am
  • Lv. Louisville (bus - leave from train station) 9:00 am
  • Ar. Nashville 12:45 pm

returning, lv. Nashville 1:40 pm, ar. Louisvile 6:00pm

  • Lv. Louisville 9:20 pm
  • Ar. Chicago 8:37 a.m.
These trains connect to service from LA, San Francisco, Denver, Omaha, Portland, Seattle, etc.

References:

Charlie Hunter (Conductor) is a well-known folk music manager, who, with Carol Young, has run Young/Hunter Management www.younghunter.com for the last eleven years, managing clients such as Chris Smither, Richard Shindell, Peter Mulvey, Cry Cry Cry and others. Along with the late R. Gilad Schamess he is also the founder of Trains of Thought, which conducted long-distance writing retreats on North American trains. He has traveled the cross-Canada rail route eleven times.

Alan Rowoth (Engineer) is the Godfather of Folk on the Internet. He owns the folkmusic.org website and is listmom to the folkmusic and FolkBiz lists on the net. During the summer, you'll often find him sitting under a Big Orange Tarp - http://www.bigorangetarp.com .

Sarah Ovenden (Director of On-Board Services & Creature Comforts) is a long-time facilitator with Trains of Thought and a big fan of John Gorka, Fred Eaglesmith and sundry others. She knows her way around a train.

I'm Interested in coming along on Folktrain 2004 to San Diego. Please add my email address to your info list!


Click to subscribe to Folktrain  http://groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/Folktrain2004

If you have specific questions, send me an old fashioned email message.

You can visit the Amtrak (http://www.amtrak.com) for more information and photos of the Amtrak trains and service.

webmaster@folktrain.com   (c)2009 (update in progress)
 Latest News:

Folk Music News: 2 Jul 2009 at 6:49pm
News about folk music, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

• Ms. Zykina rose to stardom from the factory floor to become one of the Soviet Union?s best-loved folk singers.
Lyudmila Zykina, Folk Singer, Dies at 80 2 Jul 2009 at 9:00pm

• For 85 years, strummers, pickers and fiddlers have met in the North Carolina hills on a spring weekend to play homage to old-time music.
Celebrating the Sounds of Appalachian Strings 2 Jul 2009 at 9:00pm

• In front of an all-acoustic group without drums an ad hoc sextet of Nashville session musicians called the Sugarcanes Elvis Costello?s guitar was the loudest element, after his voice.
Acoustic Set of Country, Rock and Old-Time Tales 11 Jun 2009 at 9:00pm

• A singer, upon discovering her Appalachian roots, begins to claim it as her own.
Folk Songs, It Turns Out, Were in Diana Jones?s Blood 30 May 2009 at 9:00pm

• Mr. Escalona was a beloved writer of Colombian folk music and inspired the novelist Gabriel García Márquez.
Rafael Escalona, 81, Folk Musician and Balladeer of Colombia, Is Dead 23 May 2009 at 9:00pm

Folk Music News: 2 Jul 2009 at 6:49pm
FeedZilla.com: Top 20 news stories about music / folk. Add free content to your site and blog with FeedZilla.com's free widgets.

• Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and the surviving Grateful Dead are headlining this year's Rothbury Festival now under way in rural western Michigan.. . ... (source: Inform) - RSS news feeds and Widgets on Feedzilla.com
Detroit Free Press: Traffic moving smoothly into Rothbury Festival (source: I... 2 Jul 2009 at 12:20pm

• Lyudmila Zykina, one of the Soviet Union's best-loved folk singers who rose to stardom from the factory floor to charm millions at the height of ... (source: Inform) - RSS feeds and Feed widget on Feedzilla.com
St. Petersburg Times, Russia: Singer Zykina Dies at 80 (source: Inform) 2 Jul 2009 at 12:03pm

• Veteran Chicago broadcaster Norman Pellegrini, who served as program director at fine arts station WFMT-FM 98.7 for more than 43 years has died at ... (source: Inform) - RSS widgets and RSS feeds on Feedzilla.com
Examiner.com: Anchorage, Alaska: Veteran broadcaster Norman Pellegrini dead a... 2 Jul 2009 at 11:16am

• Most Coastsiders picture Michael O'Neill, saxophone in hand, pumping out jazz licks as part of a jazz combo.. A well-established musician and ... (source: Inform) - RSS feeds and Feed widget on Feedzilla.com
Half Moon Bay Review, California: Coastsider scores film on a Congressman (so... 2 Jul 2009 at 7:23am

• American folk songs aren't all about protesting something; there are also plenty of great tunes that pay homage to America. Included on this list are particularly songs that make reference to American Independence Day. Some of them seem to only refer to th... (source: About) - RSS news feeds and Widgets on Feedzilla.com
Independence Day Songs (source: About) 2 Jul 2009 at 7:23am