Capitol Records'
1967
Pete Seeger
LP
Freight Train
is a retitled reissue of the label's 1964 album
Folk Songs by Pete Seeger
. "Never-before released masters," proclaimed a legend on the front cover of that LP, and when the much smaller print on the back cover revealed, "Released by agreement with Folkways Records," some explanation was offered for how it could be that an album of previously unreleased recordings by
, who is contracted to
Columbia Records
, was being issued by
Capitol Records
, one of
Columbia
's rivals.
Seeger'
s tenure at
, which dates back to 1961, doesn't seem to have interfered with his work for the tiny independent label
Folkways
, which predates his association with the major record label;
hasn't felt that
Folkways'
continuing to pump out
Seeger
albums assembled from its vast archives constituted competition, given its limited distribution. Of course, having
license material to
Capitol
was another matter entirely, and
couldn't have been pleased about it. What made
a viable candidate for such a release was his renewed prominence as of 1964. Arguably the godfather of the folk revival, his profile had been raised in recent years by
's
Kingston Trio
, who charted with his song
"Where Have All the Flowers Gone"
; by the success of his song
"If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song),"
by
Peter, Paul & Mary
; by the controversy surrounding his exclusion from the network television series
Hootenanny
for his political background; and by the success of his
album
We Shall Overcome
and its chart single
"Little Boxes."
As of 1967, he had, if anything, gained even greater prominence, due to the attention given his opposition to the Vietnam War. Whatever its title, the album of 12 songs
got from
emphasizes
's ties to traditional folk and country music, starting with the opening track,
"T.B. Blues,"
his version of a song by the yodeling brakeman
Jimmie Rodgers
. Other songs, such as
"Careless Love"
and
"Red River Valley,"
also fit into the traditional country category, or would if
didn't sing them without a trace of a Southern accent. Elsewhere,
provides his takes on some folk songs that have been popularized by the likes of
Burl Ives
(
"Jimmy Crack Corn"
) and
"Freight Train,"
"This Train"
). He also takes on some of his well-known political concerns, addressing inflation on
"Dollar Ain't a Dollar Any More,"
the plight of farmers in
"Banks of Marble,"
and conservation in
"Coyote."
Still, this is not a collection that comes off as primarily political. Rather, it is, as it was called at first, an album of
. ~ William Ruhlmann