The best live old timey music I've heard in a long time was in a Broadway play--the recent production of "Inherit the Wind" with Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy. They had a Carter Family Style string band, with three part, old time harmonies. These big time professionals give the people what they want--that's the key to Nashville survival (and LA survival, and New York Survival).

At any rate, I think the song you want is Amtrak Crescent, by Scott Miller. And the peach business isn't the only allusion, he makes a real traditional folksong allusion, too.:


Amtrak Crescent
Scott Miller


Well the Amtrak Crescent is a north bound train
When you can't afford to stay no more in New Orleans
So I bought the cheapest ticket and I carried my clothes
And the blood beneath my eyes from a broken nose
When life goes wrong this train goes on and on
When life goes wrong this train goes on

Well there aint no ham like the Birming-ham
To make a fella wanna stay in Alabam
But I crossed into Georgia into Eastern Time
And dared to eat a peach to take it off my mind
When life goes wrong this train goes on

Somewhere between right and wrong
Somehow I manage to keep moving on
Searching for any place but where I am
and a first and second chance

At stop in Charlotte found a hogs leg joint
Seemed like forever 'til we reached High Point
Now Lynchburg to Danville that's a ghost filled rail
If you listen you can hear the engineer's wife wail
When life goes wrong this train goes on

Better say Manassas if you say Bull Run
Or in Virginia you won't get along with anyone
But just across the river you can change your tune
Like all the politicians there in DC do
When life goes wrong they just go on
Chorus

It used to be pretty on the Eastern Shore
Now its more New York down to Baltimore
It took so much effort just to move this train
Why does everything around me have to look the same?
Like when life goes wrong, it just goes on and on