Illinois Central to Champaign – guitar instrumental

The first time I took the Illinois Central train — “The City of New Orleans” — from Chicago to Champaign, Illinois, was in 1968. I will never forget the fun I had — enjoying the company of fellow students and being captivated by the beautiful prairie scenery. I was a “city boy,” and for me train travel represented freedom and the “wide open spaces.” Steve Goodman’s song “The City of New Orleans” won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1971, and Arlo Guthrie’s version became a hit recording. A few years later, while attending law school at the Champaign-Urbana campus of the University of Illinois, I still played guitar for hours a day, coming up with combinations of chord progressions and finger-picking. This little ditty reminded me how much I loved train travel. I’m sure I was influenced by Goodman’s folk music as well as by Elizabeth Cotton’s famous song, “Freight Train.”