Woody Guthrie recorded 900 miles as a fiddle piece with Cisco Houston and Bes Hawes in April 1944. Earlier that year he had recorded it (possibly two takes) as a vocal with Cisco Houston and Sonny Terry; however there is much confusion over the discographical correlation as it is also titled Lonesome Train and Rail Road Whistle. He made a solo recording for the BBC in July of that year similar to that made famous by Cisco Houston; that's a hard title to get! Cisco recorded the well known version for Asch at an unknown date and again for Vanguard in 1960 but a rather over produced version. He also recorded it for the BBC in 1960, again a wonderful version if you can get it!
I first heard Bing Crosby sound-a-like, Liverpool singer Michael Holliday sing this - but now 10,000 miles - as a popular song way back.Nothing to do with Nic Jones's song of the same title.
Hedy West's 500 miles is obviously a variation of the 900 miles song and a superb one too