Sunday 15 November 2009

Children Of Nuggets / The Nashville Ramblers - The Trains

Four years ago I wrote liner notes for Rhino's Children Of Nuggets 4CD box set, an all-encompassing collection of '60s-influenced bands from 1976-1996. The words took up 73 pages of the book:
http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetail.lasso?Number=74639

Back then I was convinced that The Trains by The Nashville Ramblers was one of the best tracks of the 99 collected and wrote this:
"The Trains might be one of the most spine-tingling songs on this set, but its also amongst the most obscure and its original release is impossible to find. Despite being based in San Francisco and originally having coming from San Diego, The Nashville Ramblers only vinyl appearance was in the UK, via The Trains inclusion on the Brit-only mod-comp LP American Heart And Soul. Children Of Nuggets marks the first-ever proper release of this lost gem.

The Nashville Ramblers formed in 1985 as a veritable supergroup. Carl Rusk had been in The Mystery Machine, Ron Silva was in The Crawdaddys and Tom Ward spent time in The Gravedigger V. Bassist Tom Ward says “our aesthetic seemed a little odd, even among our own scene. I guess because it was pop, in a way, and among the diverse revivalist audiences of Southern California in the mid-‘80s, we'd find ourselves trying to bring the Everly Brothers to a roomful of suedehead scooter boys – or bringing British beat to people who wanted pure '66 fuzztone.”After inexplicably failing to make an impact as The Nashville Ramblers, the band changed their name to The Black Diamonds in 1988 and moved to New York in the early ‘90s in another attempt to carve out a niche. Yet again though, it wasn’t to be. Pity."

Now, this has come in to the world: an amazing performance of an equally amazing song that confirms that this really is one of the greatest songs ever. Extraordinary.

2 comments:

  1. The Trains is finally being remastered from the original 3-track tapes and will be released as a 45rpm single, along with another song recorded at the same session, on Ugly Things Records later this year.

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  2. The Nashville Ramblers will be performing live in Los Angeles and San Diego for the release of their first official single, January 21st and 22nd, 2011.
    More information here:
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Nashville-Ramblers/238395131291

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