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The Evergreen Line
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The Evergreen Branch of the Long Island Railroad was only 2 miles long, running through Brooklyn and Queens, New York. Words & music by Steve Suffet. Back-up vocal by Anne Price. Banjo by Robin Greenstein.
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Artist picture
Old fashioned folksinger in the People's Music tradition.
Born Stephen Lawrence Suffet in 1947, Steve Suffet is best described as an old fashioned folksinger. His repertoire is a mixture of railroad songs, trucker songs, cowboy songs, union songs, old time ballads, blues, ragtime, Gospel, bluegrass, topical-political songs, and whatever else tickles his fancy. He takes songs from whatever sources he wishes and then he sings them his own way, maybe rewriting the lyrics on the spot, flatting a 7th, or changing a major key to a mountain modal.Steve also writes his own songs, sometimes set to the tunes of traditional folk songs, but more often set to tunes he has composed in traditional styles. Photo credit: Jody Kolodzey
Song Info
Genre
Acoustic • Acoustic Folk
Charts
Peak #42
Peak in subgenre #4
Author
Steve Suffet
Rights
Steve Suffet
Uploaded
October 05, 2012
Track Files
MP3
MP3 4.0 MB • 128 kbps • 4:19
Story behind the song
The Evergreen Branch of the Long Island RR was only 2 miles long. It ran mostly through the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York, ending up at Cooper Avenue Junction near the Cemetery of the Evergreens in the Ridgewood section of Queens. Service ended in 1984 after 111 years. The tracks were not ripped up. Instead they were covered with asphalt, and they can be seen breaking through the pavement in several locations.
Lyrics
The Evergreen Line Words & music by Steve Suffet By the dim and flaring lights of a place called Wyckoff Heights, I was born in eighteen eighty-nine, As a boy I heard the sound of the iron drive wheels pound, And the whistle on the Evergreen Line. Chorus: Cooper Junction is a mile straight ahead, Bushwick Depot is a mile just behind, In the early morning sun on a cemetery run, Rolling down the Evergreen Line. Old Reuben had a train, ran from Georgia to Maine, But Reuben’s train ain’t the same as mine, The short line in this song is just two miles long, Rolling down the Evergreen Line. [Repeat chorus.] First the Dutchmen came and they left behind their name, The Germans and Swedes they came in time, This train was nearly gone when they came here from San Juan, A vestige of the Evergreen Line. [Repeat chorus.] For all who paid the price, this train hauled blocks of ice, Lumber and lead and turpentine, It hauled away the trash, the salvage and the ash, The payload on the Evergreen Line. [Repeat chorus.] I recall the somber morn when I heard the mournful horn, Blowing through the cemetery pine, And everybody knew from the way the whistle blew, A funeral train was coming down the line. [Repeat chorus.] Through the buckling pavement cracks you still can see the tracks, Of the train I knew when I was in my prime, And when my time has come, you can bring my body home, Rolling down the Evergreen Line. [Repeat chorus twice.]
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