Smoking Top Ten: Smoke Along the Track (#5)

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Top five time! To someone’s chagrin, three of the top five are country songs. But there’s one obvious rock song that hasn’t shown up yet, so…. So hold your flare guns and I’ll get to it. Meanwhile, here’s today’s song with “smoke” in the title. #5: Smoke Along the Track - Stonewall Jackson One of my 100 favorites! Cry and cringe all you want, but I love this song. And this music. Stonewall Jackson is a marvelous, gracious gentleman. (He lit up like a Christmas tree when I told him one of my favorite songs of his is “You Haven’t Heard.” He replied, “We’re always happy when someone says they like one of my songs, but I’m really excited when it’s one I wrote.” ) I grew up listening to this man. Heck, he even had a crossover hit (“Waterloo,” no relation to the Abba song). He’s 88 now, and pretty much blacklisted in Nashville, so I don’t expect to see him make the Hall of Fame until after he dies (the jerks). Maybe they’ll surprise me this year, though. Anyway, this song has been covered by Emmylou Harris (who mumbled more than Michael Stipe did on the first R.E.M. EP and album!) and Dwight Yoakam (who somehow couldn’t bring himself to do the different lines in the choruses so stuck to one ). I always go back to the first version I heard, and the one that’ll always be among my favorites by this country legend. Smoke Along the Track Written by Alan Rose and Don Helms Recorded by Stonewall Jackson From The Dynamic Stonewall Jackson, 1959 I’m gonna leave you crying: