Orphan Train

from Earth Harmony Sampler by Earth Harmony

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

Orphan Train

I heard about orphan trains some time ago from a friend – I had never known about that part of our country’s history. So I did some research and, as I often do, I felt compelled to write a song about what I learned. And as sometimes happens in my songwriting, I take on the life of the character or situation I'm writing about and try to write from that perspective, sometimes with tears of sadness, or feeling the fear. This happened with Orphan Train. When first creating it, when I sang it, there were indeed tears of sadness and anger and fear as I walked in the shoes of a young girl who had lost her family after they came to Boston in the late 1800s, and who was now an orphan facing a very hard, uncertain future. I have Scottish and Swedish roots and perhaps that's why I felt such a strong connection. It was years later that I was doing some more research about these orphaned children and found that when young men reached the age of 17, they were released and sent out to live on their own by the family for whom they had been working – and this was many years after I had written the last line: "...I'm 17 today."

lyrics

Orphan Train
Christina Nordstrom

My home was in New England, far away in Boston town,
but the smallpox took my family and left me on my own.
They left me all alone.

‘Twas the year of 1890 when both my parents died.
My sister, Jen, it took her, too, as I wept by her side.
I wept by her side!

All that lonely night I wondered, praying what would become of me?
And why, tell me why? But, no answer, no words of comfort be.
No words would comfort me.

Some of them in town they saw it fit my future to arrange, saying
“A child not of age, with no family must ride the orphan train!
She’ll ride the orphan train.”

As the train pulled out I trembled to the cadence of the wheels below:
Where is hope, where is love, where is family? Will I ever know?
I will never know!

That emptiness I felt within is with me to this day,
and that was five long years ago, I’m 17 today.
I’m 17 today.

credits

from Earth Harmony Sampler, released April 23, 2008
Christina Nordstrom, vocal and guitar
Ric Bailey, guitar
Ted Mello, bass
All words and music written by Christina Nordstrom © 2008

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Christina Nordstrom image

Christina Nordstrom Boston, Massachusetts

In addition to three solo albums (Songs for the Journey Home, Kids’ Songs, and North Stream) this collection written by Chris Nordstrom includes two projects and a single recorded by Earth Harmony: Field Work (Nordstrom, Ted Mello, Michelle Glidden), Earth Harmony Sampler (Nordstrom, Ted Mello, Ric Bailey), and Rock, Paper, Scissors (Nordstrom, Ric Bailey, Michelle Glidden, Bruce Joy). ... more

contact / help

Contact Christina Nordstrom

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Christina Nordstrom, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Seafood Sam joins the show to discuss his newest album, " Standing On Giant Shoulders".
listen now