The first to record Steel Rails was Mel Tillis, who heard it on a cassette tape. Mel did not release it, but he encouraged me to become a music row songwriter. Next to record it was the McPeake Brothers, then my band, Boot Hill. Indian Summer with Frances Mooney was another 1970: S version. So it was getting around when Alison Krauss heard the Boot Hill version. She told me later it was the image in the first two lines that drew her to love the song. ~ Louisa Branscomb
A reunion of today’s prominent artists who cite steel rails, as sung by Alison Krauss, as a song important in their early careers.
- Steel Rails was #1 for 16 months 1991-1992 for Alison Krauss
- SPGMA Song of the year 1992
- Included on Alison Krauss’s Grammy and John Denver’s last album.
- Designated a bluegrass classic by XM Radio 2016#13 “most important songs in Bluegrass’s first 50 years” (XM Radio)
- Survey … “most jammed song in bluegrass”.
- “The song that brought a whole generation into bluegrass.” Chris Jones (Bluegrass Now)
- Among artists who credit steel rails as influencing their career in bluegrass, is Sierra Hull:
“I wrote Steel Rails in 1971. It was born out of watching a train disappear around a bend in the mountains. The tracks were shining in the sun and i felt the magic of letting go, riding the train into a new destiny…” Louisa Branscomb
Now Steel Rails has a life of its own…