Welcome back to Shecky's Jam Band. I'm Shecky. In the last episode, if you caught it, we talked about From Good Homes, beloved New Jersey band, broke into a bar to play a song, got their name from a judge, and had Dave Matthews open for them, and said a tearful goodbye to Waterloo Village in 1999 in front of 5 ,000 broken -hearted fans. I ended that episode by saying FGH story wasn't over. The fans refused to accept the ending
and the band came back. But here's the part I left out, because I was saving it for today. When From Good Homes walked off the Waterloo stage in 1999, frontman Todd Schaeffer didn't go home and wait. He went to a party at a friend's house in northwestern New Jersey and at that party, some musicians started picking bluegrass and something happened that nobody saw coming. Today's episode is what came next. Today, we're
talking about Railroad Earth. If you listen to the From Good Home episode, you already know that Todd Schaefer is one of the finest songwriters New Jersey has ever produced. He spent a decade with FGH writing the kind of songs that made people drive four hours to a show and cry at the encore. When that band ended in 1999, he put out a solo record and was figuring out what
came next. And then Andy Gosling, a veteran of Northwest New Jersey music scene, who had been in a band called the Blue Sparks from Hell, threw a party at his house. an informal bluegrass get -together. Schaefer showed up. Tim Carbone, who played violin and had been in the blue sparks with Gosling, was there too. They started picking bluegrass tunes, old standards, fiddle songs, whatever came up. Schaefer has described it exactly
as it was. Not a band he started, not a deliberate plan, just a party, a porch, some instruments, and chemistry. He told interviewers years later, they invited me to join in the project and it sounded interesting. I said, sure, sounds like fun. The informal sessions moved to Gosling's house and kept growing. Mandolinist John Skihan joined in. Other players came and went. Eventually, as Skihan recalled, they had played every bluegrass
standard and fiddle tune they knew. And that's when they started working on Schaeffer's original material. And that's when everyone in the room realized something different was happening. By January 2001, the informal jams had become real rehearsals. Drummer Carrie Harmon and bassist
Dave Von Dolan completed the lineup. And this brand new band of six people, who have been playing together for only a matter of weeks, christened themselves Railroad Earth, the name comes from a poem titled October in the Railroad Earth. This piece is about a nomadic spirit, the pull of the horizon, the feeling of always being in motion towards something just out of reach. The band also has a song called Railroad Earth, a full circle tribute to the name and philosophy
behind it. It's one of the most consistent crowd favorites in their live sets When they play it the title isn't just a name anymore. It becomes a feeling Here's the story. I really want to tell you today Because one of the most it's one of the greater origin stories in the history of American Jam music Railroad Earth has been together for three weeks Three that's it They've barely memorized each other's names, let alone
full sets of songs. They go into a local recording studio and cut five song demos, recorded live with almost no overdubs, just the six of them in a room playing together. Raw, direct, completely honest. The album would eventually be called The Black Bear Sessions. Their manager hears the demo and does something bold. he starts sending it not to small -scale local venues, not to regional promoters, but to some of the country's most
prestigious music festivals. And the response, mandolinist John Skihan later recalled, the demo was so well received by everyone who heard it, that before they knew what was happening, we found ourselves facing a full national tour, including Tellaride and High Sierra. Telluride, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado, one of the crown jewels of America roots music scene. That was their 10th gig, their 10th show
ever. They had been a band for weeks and they were playing at one of the most storied outdoor stages in the country. They played and right after the set, reportedly before the dust had even settled on the stage, Someone from Sugar Hill Records walked up to them. Sugar Hill, the legendary Nashville -based bluegrass and roots label, home to some of the most respected artists in the genre. And they were offered a record
deal on the spot at their 10th show. Skihand's quote about the moment captures it perfectly. None of us could believe how quickly things were happening at that point. We all knew we were going to have to work really fast to keep up. From a backyard picking party to a major roots label record deal in a matter of months, that's not a normal trajectory. This is a band that
arrived already knowing who they were. Alright, if I have to pick one song for Railroad Earth, it's Seven Story Mountain from their Black Bear Sessions, their debut album in 2001. This is a six plus minute journey that tells you immediately what Railroad Earth is and what they are not. It opens with a Raga inspired introduction, Tim Carbone's violin doing something that feels simultaneously Indian classical and Appalachian folk, a combination that should be jarring but instead feels inevitable.
Todd Schaeffer's lyrics trace a spiritual journey up the mountain, through the clouds, towards something you can sense but never quite name. Live, Seven Story Mountain is even more extraordinary. Concert reviewers consistently describe it as a song that builds and builds and builds. The improvised sections stretch the song well beyond its studio length, with each instrument taking the wheel in turn before the whole ensemble converges
on the melody. The Capitol Theater in Portchester once described a live version as reaching something that topped 15 minutes during an extended improvisational run. 15 minutes from a song that's six minutes in the studio. That is the Railroad Earth difference. The songs that are strong enough to stand on their own and they're also sturdy enough to hold that whole lot of improvised weight. on top of them. Start here, you'll know immediately whether Railroad Earth is for you. And if it is, you're
about to go on a very long, beautiful ride. When I think about Railroad Earth's show that lives permanently in the collective memory of their hobo fan community, the show that gets passed around, the recording that people press into other people's hands and say, start here, I keep coming back to September 5, 2009 Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison, Colorado. This night had a particular weight to it. Railroad Earth was the opening
act for the Allman Brothers. The Allman Brothers, one of the founding pillars of Southern rock improvisational American music. Playing Red Rocks and the New Jersey Jam Grass Band from a backyard picking party was asked to set the stage. They opened with Long Way to Go and if you know Railroad Earth, you know that that is a statement. Long Way to Go is one of the great audience sing -along anthems in their catalog. It's a song about endurance, about the road, about how far you've come and
how much further you're willing to go. Opening a Red Rock show with that song in front of an Allman Brothers crowd on a friday night in colorado with the red sandstone catching the last of the september light this is a choice that says we know exactly who we are all right some facts that will surprise you about railroad earth andy gosling played everything founding member andy gosling played acoustic guitar electric guitar banjo dobro i don't even know what that is mandolin
flute penny whistle bass clarinet, lap steel, soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, and baritone saxophone. 14 instruments in one band. He is the sonic swiss army knife of railroad earth until his passing, unfortunately, from cancer in October 2018. His absence left a permanent mark on the band's soul. The second fact that you might not know is they wrote songs with John Denver. In 2018, the John Denver estate approached
Railroad Earth about a unique project. Denver had left behind unfinished lyrics that were never set to music. Todd Schaeffer composed the music, and Railroad Earth recorded the songs as a vinyl EP called Railroad Earth, The John Denver Letters, released on Earth Day with a portion of the proceeds going to youth climate strike. Two artists separated by generations collaborating across time. Third
fact, Warren Hayes and Phil Lesh called. Railroad Earth has toured and recorded with Warren Hayes, a longtime Allman Brothers and government mule guitarist, and has performed with Phil Lesh, the Grateful Dead's bassist. When the pillars of those two institutions come calling, you are operating at the highest level of the genre. Last fact that you might not know, the fans call themselves Hobos. Railroad Earth's dedicated fan base gave themselves a name, The Hobos. It
fits perfectly. Nomadic, train -loving, following the music wherever it leads, the Hobo community has sustained this band through lineup changes and the loss of a founding member. and keep showing up in extraordinary numbers. Here's my verdict.
I want to come back to where we started. That party at Andy Gosling's house, Todd Schaefer fresh off the end of his Good 4 Homes, showing up with a guitar, Tim Carbone with his violin, a group of musicians who knew each other but had never played together, passing around a bottle, running through old fiddle tunes on a New Jersey porch. Nobody planned it. Nobody called a meeting and said let's start a band. It just happened. The music happened. And the music was so undeniable
that within weeks it had become rehearsals. Within months it had become a demo. And then within a year it became Tellaride, Sugar Hill Records, and a band with a name taken from a poem from a fan base called Hobos. That is... through the line of this whole New Jersey story, from good homes, railroad earth, different trains, same track. The music finds a way to keep moving. Todd Schaefer loses one vehicle, climbs aboard another. The song changes shape, but the heart
of them stays the same. Honest, earthy, rooted in the land of the people of the Northwest New Jersey, reaching out towards something larger. Railroad Earth. has been rolling over for two decades now. They've lost Andy Gosling, one of the most remarkable multi -instrumentalists any of us will ever hear. They've rebuilt. They've kept going because the music demands it, because the hobos need it, because Todd Schaeffer has more songs in him, and Tim Carbone's fiddle still
has things to say. Start with Seven Story Mountain, then find Red Rock's 2009 on the internet archive. Then, if you can, find a Railroad Earth show near you and go stand in the night air and let the fiddle do what the fiddle does. You won't regret it. That's Railroad Earth and that's Shecky's Jam Bands for this episode. Thank you for riding along. See you next time.