The Top Tens- All-Time Best Johnny Cash Train Tunes

I’ve been listening a lot to Johnny Cash’s posthumous "American V: A Hundred Highways," a melancholy mix of covers, traditionals, and original compositions. His haunting voice is a shell of his normal baritone, but on no other CD I own does a voice- a frail one at that- reflect more of the person than on this one.

Johnny Cash was known by many rail fans as one of the few musicians who wrote & sang songs of the railroads & trains. He went as far in the 70's to produce a program called "riding the rails" which showed his love & understanding of trains

Track #3 on American V, "Like the 309," was the very last song Cash wrote. It is likely about his own death, though it is definitely about a train. It's one of the few tracks that moves with Cash's old locomotive-like thrum on this album.

“I hear the sound of a railroad train
The whistle blows and I'm gone again.
It will take me higher than a Georgia pine
Stand back children, it's a 309”

It got me thinking about all the great train songs that Cash recorded over his career. And it becomes ThatNashvilleSound.com’s second Top 10 list…

10. I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow
9. L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore
8. Legend of John Henry
7. Rock Island Line
6. Desperatos Waiting For A Train
5. City of New Orleans
4. Like the 309
3. Hey Porter
2. Orange Blossom Special
1. Folsom Prison Blues