Welcome back to Shecky's Jam Band. I'm Shecky.
In the last episode, if you caught it, we talked
about From Good Homes, beloved New Jersey band,
broke into a bar to play a song, got their name
from a judge, and had Dave Matthews open for
them, and said a tearful goodbye to Waterloo
Village in 1999 in front of 5 ,000 broken -hearted
fans. I ended that episode by saying FGH story
wasn't over. The fans refused to accept the ending
and the band came back. But here's the part I
left out, because I was saving it for today.
When From Good Homes walked off the Waterloo
stage in 1999, frontman Todd Schaeffer didn't
go home and wait. He went to a party at a friend's
house in northwestern New Jersey and at that
party, some musicians started picking bluegrass
and something happened that nobody saw coming.
Today's episode is what came next. Today, we're
talking about Railroad Earth. If you listen to
the From Good Home episode, you already know
that Todd Schaefer is one of the finest songwriters
New Jersey has ever produced. He spent a decade
with FGH writing the kind of songs that made
people drive four hours to a show and cry at
the encore. When that band ended in 1999, he
put out a solo record and was figuring out what
came next. And then Andy Gosling, a veteran of
Northwest New Jersey music scene, who had been
in a band called the Blue Sparks from Hell, threw
a party at his house. an informal bluegrass get
-together. Schaefer showed up. Tim Carbone, who
played violin and had been in the blue sparks
with Gosling, was there too. They started picking
bluegrass tunes, old standards, fiddle songs,
whatever came up. Schaefer has described it exactly
as it was. Not a band he started, not a deliberate
plan, just a party, a porch, some instruments,
and chemistry. He told interviewers years later,
they invited me to join in the project and it
sounded interesting. I said, sure, sounds like
fun. The informal sessions moved to Gosling's
house and kept growing. Mandolinist John Skihan
joined in. Other players came and went. Eventually,
as Skihan recalled, they had played every bluegrass
standard and fiddle tune they knew. And that's
when they started working on Schaeffer's original
material. And that's when everyone in the room
realized something different was happening. By
January 2001, the informal jams had become real
rehearsals. Drummer Carrie Harmon and bassist
Dave Von Dolan completed the lineup. And this
brand new band of six people, who have been playing
together for only a matter of weeks, christened
themselves Railroad Earth, the name comes from
a poem titled October in the Railroad Earth.
This piece is about a nomadic spirit, the pull
of the horizon, the feeling of always being in
motion towards something just out of reach. The
band also has a song called Railroad Earth, a
full circle tribute to the name and philosophy
behind it. It's one of the most consistent crowd
favorites in their live sets When they play it
the title isn't just a name anymore. It becomes
a feeling Here's the story. I really want to
tell you today Because one of the most it's one
of the greater origin stories in the history
of American Jam music Railroad Earth has been
together for three weeks Three that's it They've
barely memorized each other's names, let alone
full sets of songs. They go into a local recording
studio and cut five song demos, recorded live
with almost no overdubs, just the six of them
in a room playing together. Raw, direct, completely
honest. The album would eventually be called
The Black Bear Sessions. Their manager hears
the demo and does something bold. he starts sending
it not to small -scale local venues, not to regional
promoters, but to some of the country's most
prestigious music festivals. And the response,
mandolinist John Skihan later recalled, the demo
was so well received by everyone who heard it,
that before they knew what was happening, we
found ourselves facing a full national tour,
including Tellaride and High Sierra. Telluride,
the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado,
one of the crown jewels of America roots music
scene. That was their 10th gig, their 10th show
ever. They had been a band for weeks and they
were playing at one of the most storied outdoor
stages in the country. They played and right
after the set, reportedly before the dust had
even settled on the stage, Someone from Sugar
Hill Records walked up to them. Sugar Hill, the
legendary Nashville -based bluegrass and roots
label, home to some of the most respected artists
in the genre. And they were offered a record
deal on the spot at their 10th show. Skihand's
quote about the moment captures it perfectly.
None of us could believe how quickly things were
happening at that point. We all knew we were
going to have to work really fast to keep up.
From a backyard picking party to a major roots
label record deal in a matter of months, that's
not a normal trajectory. This is a band that
arrived already knowing who they were. Alright,
if I have to pick one song for Railroad Earth,
it's Seven Story Mountain from their Black Bear
Sessions, their debut album in 2001. This is
a six plus minute journey that tells you immediately
what Railroad Earth is and what they are not.
It opens with a Raga inspired introduction, Tim
Carbone's violin doing something that feels simultaneously
Indian classical and Appalachian folk, a combination
that should be jarring but instead feels inevitable.
Todd Schaeffer's lyrics trace a spiritual journey
up the mountain, through the clouds, towards
something you can sense but never quite name.
Live, Seven Story Mountain is even more extraordinary.
Concert reviewers consistently describe it as
a song that builds and builds and builds. The
improvised sections stretch the song well beyond
its studio length, with each instrument taking
the wheel in turn before the whole ensemble converges
on the melody. The Capitol Theater in Portchester
once described a live version as reaching something
that topped 15 minutes during an extended improvisational
run. 15 minutes from a song that's six minutes
in the studio. That is the Railroad Earth difference.
The songs that are strong enough to stand on
their own and they're also sturdy enough to hold
that whole lot of improvised weight. on top of
them. Start here, you'll know immediately whether
Railroad Earth is for you. And if it is, you're
about to go on a very long, beautiful ride. When
I think about Railroad Earth's show that lives
permanently in the collective memory of their
hobo fan community, the show that gets passed
around, the recording that people press into
other people's hands and say, start here, I keep
coming back to September 5, 2009 Red Rocks Amphitheater,
Morrison, Colorado. This night had a particular
weight to it. Railroad Earth was the opening
act for the Allman Brothers. The Allman Brothers,
one of the founding pillars of Southern rock
improvisational American music. Playing Red Rocks
and the New Jersey Jam Grass Band from a backyard
picking party was asked to set the stage. They
opened with Long Way to Go and if you know Railroad
Earth, you know that that is a statement. Long
Way to Go is one of the great audience sing -along
anthems in their catalog. It's a song about endurance,
about the road, about how far you've come and
how much further you're willing to go. Opening
a Red Rock show with that song in front of an
Allman Brothers crowd on a friday night in colorado
with the red sandstone catching the last of the
september light this is a choice that says we
know exactly who we are all right some facts
that will surprise you about railroad earth andy
gosling played everything founding member andy
gosling played acoustic guitar electric guitar
banjo dobro i don't even know what that is mandolin
flute penny whistle bass clarinet, lap steel,
soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, and baritone
saxophone. 14 instruments in one band. He is
the sonic swiss army knife of railroad earth
until his passing, unfortunately, from cancer
in October 2018. His absence left a permanent
mark on the band's soul. The second fact that
you might not know is they wrote songs with John
Denver. In 2018, the John Denver estate approached
Railroad Earth about a unique project. Denver
had left behind unfinished lyrics that were never
set to music. Todd Schaeffer composed the music,
and Railroad Earth recorded the songs as a vinyl
EP called Railroad Earth, The John Denver Letters,
released on Earth Day with a portion of the proceeds
going to youth climate strike. Two artists separated
by generations collaborating across time. Third
fact, Warren Hayes and Phil Lesh called. Railroad
Earth has toured and recorded with Warren Hayes,
a longtime Allman Brothers and government mule
guitarist, and has performed with Phil Lesh,
the Grateful Dead's bassist. When the pillars
of those two institutions come calling, you are
operating at the highest level of the genre.
Last fact that you might not know, the fans call
themselves Hobos. Railroad Earth's dedicated
fan base gave themselves a name, The Hobos. It
fits perfectly. Nomadic, train -loving, following
the music wherever it leads, the Hobo community
has sustained this band through lineup changes
and the loss of a founding member. and keep showing
up in extraordinary numbers. Here's my verdict.
I want to come back to where we started. That
party at Andy Gosling's house, Todd Schaefer
fresh off the end of his Good 4 Homes, showing
up with a guitar, Tim Carbone with his violin,
a group of musicians who knew each other but
had never played together, passing around a bottle,
running through old fiddle tunes on a New Jersey
porch. Nobody planned it. Nobody called a meeting
and said let's start a band. It just happened.
The music happened. And the music was so undeniable
that within weeks it had become rehearsals. Within
months it had become a demo. And then within
a year it became Tellaride, Sugar Hill Records,
and a band with a name taken from a poem from
a fan base called Hobos. That is... through the
line of this whole New Jersey story, from good
homes, railroad earth, different trains, same
track. The music finds a way to keep moving.
Todd Schaefer loses one vehicle, climbs aboard
another. The song changes shape, but the heart
of them stays the same. Honest, earthy, rooted
in the land of the people of the Northwest New
Jersey, reaching out towards something larger.
Railroad Earth. has been rolling over for two
decades now. They've lost Andy Gosling, one of
the most remarkable multi -instrumentalists any
of us will ever hear. They've rebuilt. They've
kept going because the music demands it, because
the hobos need it, because Todd Schaeffer has
more songs in him, and Tim Carbone's fiddle still
has things to say. Start with Seven Story Mountain,
then find Red Rock's 2009 on the internet archive.
Then, if you can, find a Railroad Earth show
near you and go stand in the night air and let
the fiddle do what the fiddle does. You won't
regret it. That's Railroad Earth and that's Shecky's
Jam Bands for this episode. Thank you for riding
along. See you next time.