MUSIC FOR MARCH 2022
‘TROUBLE TRAIN’
There are signs along the Androscoggin River in Brunswick and Topsham, Maine, warning that operations at a nearby dam could cause the water to rise suddenly. A good metaphor for the often unpredictable nature of problems, the signs got me going on “Trouble Train.” (The train simile came later and seemed to work better as the prevailing theme.) This was one of two songs I wrote for my band the Cowlix (1989–1994) — but the theme is better suited by the more ominous treatment heard here, performed by the Boarders, the band that came after the ’Lix.
And while that theme is never irrelevant, “Trouble Train” seems especially pertinent in these months of climate crisis, civic derangement and shooting war.
The Boarders: Doug Hubley, guitar and vocals. Jonathan Nichols-Pethick, drums. Gretchen Schaefer, bass. Recorded in 1995. “Trouble Train” copyright © 1994 by Douglas L. Hubley. Photos by Doug Hubley (above) and Jeff Stanton (below). Hear “Trouble Train” below, buy it on Bandcamp!
