I played this song the very first night I played in public, at the open mic at Daniels in the Bush House, Bellefonte. I thought it was a throwaway at the time, but the host encouraged me to play some more and I was scrambling to think what other songs I knew. I played this and Jeremy Tosten, a fine guitar player and songwriter, stopped playing pool and came over and listened intently. For better or worse, people seem to like the song. The song came from a true story; a girl I was dating back around 1980 moved to New Mexico with her mom... they took the train. I was devastated. Twenty years later, when I finally got a guitar and learned to play some, it turned into happy little ragtime chords. This recording came from a demonstration of home recording during a workshop I took hosted by Stacy Tibbets a number of years ago now... we recorded this in Stacy's dining room, I believe, as separate guitar and vocal tracks. (Had time permitted I would have done a scratch track first, this was just one take on guitar, one take on vocal and a quick mixdown.)

Lyrics

I typically play this capo'd at 3 out of a G position, so sounds in Bb, although now and then i'll move it to 4 and play it in B. The basic progression is "Salty Dog:" G, E7, A7, D7. I used to love when Doug Anderson added some ragtime lead guitar over this on his well-loved Froggy Bottom.