Meet Me at the Station
-By Bill Glahn-

The Black Crowes guys always seem to pick the coolest cover songs. Fleetwood Mac fans usually fall into two groups, the original Peter Green blues line-up or the Buckingham-Nicks pop line-up. But on his solo album, Through A Crooked Sun, Rich Robinson chose a song from the almost ignored period in between.

I have no idea what Danny Kirwan was writing about when he wrote "Station Man," and he hasn't exactly been available to ask. It could have been about an LSD trip or it could have been a love anthem. But I always hear it as something beyond that - like an homage to the Underground Railroad. Unlike other anthems of the period, for instance The O'Jays' "Love Train" or Cat Stevens' "Peace Train," Kirwan's song didn't exactly have a clearly defined destination. "Where we're going - I don't know, but you tell me I should go" is a thought I would imagine a runaway slave would think who had never been off the plantation. The end of the journey isn't known, just imagined. When Kirwan's train arrives "from ages past" it clinches that for me. This is a song that captures the spirit of civil rights - a soundtrack for the Wisconsin protests, the Occupy movement, Moral Mondays, Texas women, and everything else that's moving forward against great resistance. Let Savoy Brown's "Hellbound Train" provide the soundtrack for the naysayers. 

                                                    Danny Kirwan

Danny Kirwan, a victim of mental illness and homeless during parts of the 80s & 90s, still walks the planet because of British National Health Care. And according to the bio linked above, has again picked up his guitar. That's a blessing for Kirwan and for the world. But British National Health Care is under relentless attack due to austerity measures as are many social support systems in the U.S. That ain't right. Meet me at the station.

[Update: On June 8, 2018 Danny Kirwan passed away from undisclosed causes.]