Seaboard Airline

Thomm Jutz
Thomm Songs/SESAC, admin by Bluewater Music
Sean McCarthy
Skinny Water Publishing/BMI

This is a song that I wrote with my friend Captain Sean McCarthy. The word captain is not used ironically here. Sean is a real boat captain who has run huge yachts
up and down the Eastern seaboard for years. He currently resides in Fernandina Beach, FL where he is running boats for his brother’s business, plays lots of shows, and writes songs.
Sean is a wonderful singer, think Buffet meets Jerry Jeff. We got to know each other at the Fernandina Beach Songwriters Festival that he founded with Tammy Rogers and Zan Maxwell.
There, Sean and I became fast friends.
We share a love for history and started writing some songs about the history of Fernandina and Florida in general.

I had seen a photo advertising the famous
Seaboard Airline train that connected New York City
and Key West in a line that ran straight asa plumb line
.
The main character is part invention, part Sean’s grandfather. Luckily, as songwriters we have the magical powers to turn different characters into one.

I played my Martin 000 D-28 Norman Blake guitar in an open D tuning on this.
It was recorded with an AEA R84 ribbon mic through and AEA mic pre, and with a Brauner Phantom C condenser mic through a Sonic World The Brick mic pre.
The vocal was recorded with an AEA R44 ribbon mic through an AEA mic pre. I played and sang at the same time.