Railroad Earth

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #137 (August/September 2008).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Railroad Earth

A New Beat

by Craig Harris

Railroad Earth has found a home in the jam-band set with an improvisational approach that reaches into bluegrass, rock 'n' roll, jazz, and Celtic roots. The imaginative interplay among Tim Carbone (violin), John Skehan (mandolin), Carey Harmon (drums and hand percussion), Johnny Grubb (bass), Andy Goessling (acoustic guitar, banjo, Dobro, mandolin, flute, pennywhistle, and saxophone), and Todd Sheaffer (guitar and lead vocals) was compared by National Public Radio to "a hoedown in Haight-Ashbury." But the Stillwater, New Jersey-based quintet has built a following that stretches from Japan, where it performed at Fuji Rock, to venues across the United States, where its fans are affectionately known as "Hobos."

After climaxing its first half decade with a career-spanning double CD, Elko, Railroad Earth begins a new chapter with Amen Corner, its first studio album in four years. In lieu of 10-minute-plus jamming, the group gets down to business with concise and well-executed songs, written or co-written by Sheaffer. The result recalls the Grateful Dead's Working Man's Dead and American Beauty and the Band's Music From Big Pink.

"Elko captured what the band had become in a live setting," said Sheaffer, by telephone, "how some of the songs from the first albums translated live. With the new record, it's a starting over. Since we made The Good Life (2004), we've grown and developed. The sound has come together. We moved into the studio with a band that has been together for seven years, a more mature band, more comfortable with each other."

Producing Amen Corner on its own, Railroad Earth took a different approach from the way it recorded in the past. "With The Good Life, we did the traditional pre-production," recalled Grubb, who joined in a three-way telephone conversation. "We went to a place for a couple of months and wrote the songs. Then we went into a studio for another couple of months and recorded. This time, instead of being in one place writing, coming up with a vibe, and taking that vibe someplace else, we decided to stay in one place. It felt a lot more comfortable, more natural."

[cover #137]