The Blues Train has been played on NTS shows including Lavender Kite Audio Research Hour w/ Barnaby Bennett, with Ride The Train first played on 18 October 2018.

AllMusic Biography

If most people's appreciation of Canadian rock during the late '60s and early '70s begins and ends with the Guess Who, they are missing out on a host of great lesser-known bands. One of the most intriguing of those bands is the Blues Train, a sensational psychedelic blues combo that, like the Crazy People, put out an album on the Vancouver exploit label Condor. That immediately brings into question who exactly played on the album, since one theory holds that the same studio house band was responsible for all the label's product. Regardless of band makeup, though, The Blues Train is valuable on its own considerable merits. It houses some truly excellent music, and if it is not a proper band, it certainly comes across as the work of a legitimate unit -- and a pretty outstanding one at that.

As the band moniker implies and in keeping with perhaps the primary influence on the rock & roll scene of the era, there is a heavy identification with blues, including covers of Willie Dixon's "Hootchie Kootchie Man" and the traditional "Mojo" alongside convincing, like-minded originals like "Ride the Train" and "Busted in Chicago." There is some scorching guitar throughout, and a bass drum pulse that frequently mimics the chug of a train, an enduring symbol that holds romantic sway over the music (as the band itself articulates in the original liner notes). Joe Sanchez is (presumably) the main songwriter in the band, having contributed four of the 11 songs, and he turns out a few sensational tunes in "Missin' You," "A&R Man," and "Coast to Coast." The former song, with its chugging, jostling roadhouse groove and Tin Pan Alley piano, is Harry Nilsson on a prescription of the blues, while "Coast to Coast" is flawless honky-tonk blues with a dollop of sarcastic whimsy, again reimagining Nilsson as a grizzled old bluesman. If the Blues Train sounds like a bar-band version of the Grass Roots on occasion (which isn't even a bad thing, come to think of it) or overly emotes at others to pound home its love of the blues, the group never sounds like a pale imitation of the real thing. The Blues Train is a surprising delight -- scraggly, robust, and catchy with a wonderful sense of its place and purpose. It is perhaps even one of the strongest still unknown (and likely to remain so) blues-rock albums of the era.

Source: AllMusic - The Blues Train

Biography On Rockasteria

The Blues Train, like the Crazy People, are unknown artists that released some great sounds in the late 60's and early 70's. While little is known about them, we do know they were Canadian and recorded "The Blues Train" on the Burnaby, British Columbia-based Condor label in 1970.

Condor has gone down in history as a Canadian exploit label and they were indeed riding the crest of the different crazes that were going on during these times. Condor released quite a diversified line of music during the late 60's: everything ranging from the weirdness of The Crazy People to Latin Holiday to the very highly-rated Blues Train, The Surf Riders, and The Jimmy Cole Unlimited. As with The Crazy People, there are several rumors circulating as to actually who The Blues Train were.

The most plausible theory shared by both Clark Faville and myself is that one of its members was Johnny Kitchen, who has songwriting credits on both this LP and on other Condor release "The World With The Trio Of Tyme (#2459) and "The Crazy People (#2457). It is a known fact that he was in Canada at this time and obviously associated with the label. Kitchen ended up in Los Angeles in 1969, making records beginning with " The Victims Of Chance" on the Crestview label.

As arcane as this might seem to the casual reader, his name is synonymous with at least a dozen weird underground records released on various private labels in the U.S.A. and still nothing is known about them. To date, Johnny Kitchen has over 200 songs copyrighted through BMI We also know there is a connection with Johnny Kitchen to Wild Man Fischer. His 1969 LP "Life Brand New", has the chorus "My life is all brand new", which is the same voice and words appearing on "Parade At The Funny Farm" and "Let's Split" of The Crazy People LP.

However, other Blues Train song writing credits that never appeared on the original Condor release do not match any others from Crazy People. The inclusion of only one by Kitchen himself implies his involvement on Blues Train, unlike that of The Crazy People, may have been minimal.

Although all performers are uncredited, there has also been some speculation that a prominent Vancouver "personality" (and local TV. weatherman) was involved in putting together the "Rock" oriented exploit efforts on this label, and it is e likely that some of the musicians involved also appear o Blues Train, Jimmy Cole Unlimited, and other Condor e Jack Millman, who has songwriting and production credits on Crazy People, also is shown as involved with Condor release #2460 "And I Love Her": Jack Millman and The Tempo Orchestra. In addition, Jack Millman, along with Jean Daniel Productions, produced The Blues Train. by Roger Maglio

Source: Rockasteria - The Blues Train