Sometimes the chemistry’s right, the stars align — however you want to say it — and the best song of the night is one you didn’t even plan to play.
At a recent rehearsal, for instance, the band came in with a number of tunes to focus on. Among them were new songs the guys were just starting to work on. Others were old familiar numbers that they were polishing up to include in the next recording session for the new album.
Progress was made in the first hour or so on each of these fronts. Then between songs, on an impulse, Charlie Bowen reached for his resonator guitar. As you’ll hear in this track, while the guys were chatting, he started noodling on the strings with his slide.
Suddenly they found themselves playing a tune that hasn’t popped up for a while at the weekly rehearsals, and just like that they were sharing their favorite moment of the entire night.
About the Song
As reported earlier, “Driving Wheel” was written by Canadian folksinger David Wiffen for his self-titled debut album on Fantasy Records back in 1970.
Alas, the album received spotty promotion so the song was not widely known until it later appeared on Tom Rush’s own self-titled album, his first for Columbia Records.
Since then, “Driving Wheel” has become something of a signature song for Rush, still today regularly making the set list for his shows around the country. Other artists also have covered the song over the years, notably David Bromberg (who 50 years ago played dobro on Rush’s classic rendition) as well as Roger McGuinn and The Cowboy Junkies.
For more about the song’s back story, see this earlier Flood Watch article.
