This ten-song compilation contains some of the best country songs ever written about trains, starting with
Roy Acuff's "Wabash Cannonball" (in a 1947 remake) and also featuring such number one country hits as
Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" ("I hear that train a-comin'") (actually, this is not, as indicated, the chart-topping 1968 version),
Willie Nelson's 1983 cover of Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans" and
Rosanne Cash's "Runaway Train" (actually, we would have preferred her "My Baby Thinks He's a Train"). Despite the
Super Hits series title, not all of the songs were big hits or even hits at all, but songs like "Wreck of the Old 97" and the country Top 20 cover of
Guy Clark's "Desperados Waiting for a Train" by
Willie Nelson,
Johnny Cash,
Waylon Jennings and
Kris Kristofferson (a.k.a the Highwaymen) are classics. Too bad the album is a short 33 minutes, but with a list price under $10, the price is right. ~ William Ruhlmann