The Log Train

"The Log Train" is a song written by Hank Williams.

Background

Along with "Alone and Forsaken," "The Log Train" is one of Williams' few compositions that sounds more like a folk song than a country song, with its traditional ballad introduction, "If you will listen, a song I will sing..." Set in Chapman, Alabama, the song is a biographical account of his father Lon's days as an engineer and was recorded at KWKH studio in Shreveport on December 3, 1952, just weeks before his death.^[1] Williams' half sister Leila Griffin told American Masters that Lon (to whom Hank bears a remarkable resemblance) married Hank's mother around 1918 but was injured in France during World War I, the experience having shattered him emotionally; he spent ten years in a V.A. hospital and likely influenced Williams more by his absence than anything else. According to the liner notes for the 1990 PolyGram retrospective Hank Williams: The Original Singles Collection, the singer performed the song at a private gathering over Christmas 1952 - a week before his death - and it was the last song anyone remembers hearing him sing.

References