I find these resurrected threads quite interesting reading for those of us who are fairly new to this website. Harking back to earlier posts above, I have long been struck by the lyrical and melodic similarities between Reuben’s Train, Train 45 and 900 Miles. (Dylan also uses the basic melody for his John Brown song surely?)

However, they tend to be accompanied in different ways - 900 Miles tends to work well in minor keys, possibly following Pete Seeger and others, whereas the others tend to use major chords for the modal melody. Thanks to Earl Scruggs, Reuben tends to be played in D tuning (on five string), but for some reason Train 45 tends to use the standard G tuning.

As someone else pointed out early on, you can of course accompany some of these melodies (plus I would argue the likes of Cotton Eyed Joe, Cumberland Gap, Shady Grove, Pretty Polly, Rain and Snow, Nottamun Town, etc) with just one chord anyway, or indeed none at all, if you want arguably to be truly authentic. Has our love affair with the guitar and our tendency towards a preoccupation with chord progressions unduly strait jacketed traditional songs I wonder?