On Track with Trails & Rails

At the Arizona Folklore Preserve

www.arizonafolklore.com

Ken Wilcox, Walt Richards and Paula Strong

Without trains, the American interior would not have opened up when it did and our country's history would have been quite different. Without trains, the cowboy as we envision him would not exist.

The railhead at Abilene was one destination for long cattle drives that helped create the legend of the American cowboy. Movies embellished that legend and gave us many of the images we still sing about, in songs that a lot of us grew up with.

Now that people are flying everywhere, we sometimes forget how important trains were in speeding up the settlement of our vast country.

Long time rail fans and members of the Pacific Southwest Railroad Museum, Walt and Paula bring their love of trains together with their love of train songs.

And now they’ve discovered that Trails & Rails member, Ken, has his own baggage car loaded with train tunes – and can he sing the blues !

The lore and legends of the trains come alive in the train songs Trails & Rails will share at the Arizona Folklore Preserve on March 15th and 16th, 2008.