Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 10, 1993 TAG: 9312100023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Since then, he's moved to Bradshaw Road in Roanoke County, a graduate, he says, of the "Hit and Miss Music School of Southeastern Kentucky."
Inspired by the valley trash train chugging through his neighborhood, VanOver recruited neighbor Junior Lane to accompany him on guitar and entered the Trash Train Tunes Contest.
Their song, sung to the tune of the "Wabash Cannonball" and fitted with ingenious and diabolical lyrics, charmed the distinguished judging panel and was named grand prize winner and dubbed the Official Adult Song of the Roanoke Valley Trash Train.
(Apparently, a bunch of fifth-graders from Glen Cove Elementary School last year made up the Official Kid Song of the Roanoke Valley Trash Train.
You can bet they didn't come up with any lyrics like VanOver's: "I bet there's rich folks trash, ridin' in them cars; Maybe fettuccine or leftover caviars," runs one passage.
Here are the other winners, selected from among 70 entries:
"I've Been Working on the Railroad" as performed by Jeanette Crawford of Roanoke.
"Ca-Ca Poo-Poo Choo Choo," sung to the tune of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" submitted by Diana Chamorro-Walters of Vinton and performed by expert crooner Craig Wood.
"City of New Orleans" as rewritten by Keith Law of Stanleytown and performed by staff musician Betsy Biesenbach.
"City of New Orleans" as rewritten by Pam Gilmer of Roanoke and performed by our capable staff musician.
And our two honorable mentions:
"Wreck of the Ol' 97" as retooled and performed by Ann Ellis, Dennis Guthrie and Dr. Stevie "Brody" Ridout, all of points unknown.
"City of New Orleans" as masterminded and performed by John McCrady of Salem.
The judges for the contest were Betsy Biesenbach (the finest folk-singing paralegal in all the valley); Rena Blankenship (I dunno who she is, but she sounded reasonable); Stacy Hobbs (guitarsman extraordinaire); John Hubbard (nobody wants to be the boss of the trash train, the landfill and the transfer station, but somebody has to do it); Katie Letcher Lyle of Lexington (author of that 1983 best seller, "Scalded to Death by the Steam, Authentic Stories of Railroad Disasters and the Ballads that Were Written About Them"), Craig Wood (buy the guy lunch and he'll sing anything) and yours truly.
Without the generous assistance of the kind folk at Leed's Music at Oak Grove Plaza, none of this would have been possible. Well, not all of it. OK, OK, it would have been possible, but difficult.
Keywords:
INFOLINE
by CNB