The Wreck of the Number Nine

"The Wreck of the Number Nine" is an American train song, part of a subgenre about train wrecks.

It was written by Carson Robison in 1927, and popularized by Vernon Dalhart. ^[1]

One of the best-known version is by Jim Reeves, from his 1961 album Tall Tales and Short Tempers , ^[2] although it has been sung by several other singers, including Hank Snow, Marty Robbins, Doc Watson and Mac Wiseman. ^{[3] [4]}

It tells the story of a brave engineer who takes his train out on a stormy night after kissing his sweetheart goodbye, promising to marry her the next day, but he is killed in a head-on collision with another train. Unlike some other songs in the "train wreck" subgenre, it is not based on a real incident, and it does have a known author.^{[ citation needed ]}

Music historian Bill C. Malone describes Robison's composition as an "event" song that is "a throwback to the British broadside and perhaps most characteristic of the hillbilly music of the twenties". ^[5]

References

1. Guigné, Anna Kearney (2016). The Forgotten Songs of the Newfoundland Outports: As Taken from Kenneth Peacock's Newfoundland Field Collection, 1951-1961 (1st ed.). Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press/Les Presses de l'Universite d'Ottawa. pp. 76–78. ISBN   9780776623856.
2. "Tall Tales and Short Tempers". Billboard. 27 February 1961. p. 20.
3. Jokinen, Tom (September 29, 2023). "Nine: A number of uncanny connections | CBC Radio". CBC Radio One . Retrieved 9 November 2025.
4. Thomas, Gideon (23 September 2014). "Mac Wiseman: Songs From My Mother's Hand » PopMatters". www.popmatters.com. Retrieved 9 November 2025.
5. Malone, Bill C. (1969). Country Music, U.S.A. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 59.