Fred Eaglesmith
Drive-in Movie (1998)

review by: Brandon Copple
Date: 3/1/02

I heard-tell of Fred Eaglesmith a while ago, but I hadn't heard his music until this month, when Kasey Chambers covered a couple songs in a show at Martyrs. A few days later, wandering the music store, I saw his name sticking up on one of those little plastic dividers and, mildly curious, picked out one of his records. After a glance at the hideous cover art I flipped it over to the track listing on the back. The first song was called "I Like Trains." Sold.

I like songs about trains, and trucks. Who doesn't? Maybe people who've never lain awake listening to the rumble of a cab-over diesel pulling through town in super-low, who don't come from places where you have to be on the platform at midnight if you want to catch the Southwest Chief or the City of New Orleans on the run to Chicago by morning.

If you're not one of those people, or if you are but you don't want to be, "Drive-In Movie" is what you need. It's full of songs about steel rails and big rigs and washed-up small towns where not even the goddam Coke machine works anymore.

Some nights, when I'm lying there in my apartment in the city wishing for the sound of a late-night train whistle, I play this record. And remember.