[Updated 11/16/15, 8:00 p.m ET]: Following Saturday’s news that Todd Snider had died at age 59, Billy Strings opened the final night of his November tour with his first-ever take on Snider’s “Play a Train Song”—a fitting tribute to the beloved Nashville troubadour on multiple levels.
Its title fits nicely into the quasi-ironic obsession with songs about trains shared by Billy and his fans (see: this meme page, launched in mid-2023; this all-trains set, played in 2024), but the selection was particularly resonant serving as the bluegrass picker’s homage to Snider.
Originally released on 2004 LP East Nashville Skyline, “Play a Train Song” is not in itself a song about trains, but rather a characteristically conversational Snider story-song that finds its way toward grand philosophical reflection by way of flawed but lovable characters. In it, Todd introduces a swashbuckling man who storms into his life with charming recklessness and some simple but attainable requests:
Play a train song, pour me one more round,
Make ’em leave my boots on, on the day they lay me down,
I’m a runaway locomotive out of my one track mind,
And I’m a-lookin’ for any kinda trouble that I can find.
While this man surely sounds like a handful, the way Todd sings about him throughout much of the song reflects a certain note of affection for his unfiltered, unfettered ways. The last verse, which cuts to the day Snider finds this friend dead in his house, brings that implied admiration full-circle:
In the television blizzard lights, we looked around his place,
We found him cold there on the sofa, a little smile across his face,
And though I tried with all of my sadness, you know that I just a-could not weep,
For a man who looked to me like he died laughin’ in his sleep.
Of course, while the song is delivered from Todd’s perspective, its subject certainly has more than a little bit of Todd in him—and when Billy took over Todd’s lines for “Play a Train Song” on Saturday, it sure sounded like he was singing about Todd. Here’s hoping this cover remains in the rotation. It’s pretty damn perfect.
Billy moved from there into his own “The Fire on My Tongue” before granting the opening tune’s request with a rowdy rendition of “Ridin’ That Midnight Train”.
“There’s a little train song for our brother Todd,” he told the crowd after finishing the Delmore Brothers cover. “What can you say about Todd Snider besides that he was, you know, a real troubadour, a real ramblin’ man if I ever met one.”
“I just like to tell this one little story, it must have been way back, 2017 or ’18 or so, we played a show in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, I think it was, some festival. We played there and then the next night, [Todd’s band] Hard Working Americans played. And I had this denim jacket, man, it was a Levi’s jacket, and I had found this old patch, this cool patch that said ‘Panama Red,’ and I sewed that b— on there. And I thought I was real cool, man, with my Panama Red patch, my vintage patch that I sewed on myself. Wow, real hip, you know?
“So then we played that gig and I left that coat sitting there in the green room and I’m like, ‘Ah, f—, that’s like my favorite jacket, man.’ And, like, a day or two later I looked online and I saw a picture of Todd Snider wearing that f—n’ coat,” he laughed, “and I said, ‘S—, that’s even cooler, you know?’ What a f—n’ badass.”
Watch Billy Strings cover “Play a Train Song” for Todd Snider below.
Billy Strings – “Play a Train Song” (Todd Snider) – 11/15/25
[Video: Larry Rulz 5]
Billy Strings wasn’t the only notable artist whose mind was drawn to “Play a Train Song” when they heard of Todd Snider’s passing. Greensky Bluegrass included a cover of “Play a Train Song” in its set at North Beach Bandshell in Miami Beach, FL on Saturday night. As dobro player Anders Beck explains in a clip shared by the band, “The world lost one of the great songwriters and people today, his name is Todd Snider. If you knew Todd’s music, or him, or anything like that, you would know that probably what he would want you to do tonight is to have a great time. … We’re gonna miss Todd. He was f—in’ badass.” Kitchen Dwellers also performed “Play a Train Song” during their performance on Saturday night at The State Theatre in Portland, ME. After continuing from there into their own emotional “Stand At Ease”, the group returned to the Snider well for a set-closing “Side Show Blues“.
Below, watch a clip of the Greensky Bluegrass tribute as well as a live video of Todd himself introducing and performing the song.
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Todd Snider – “Play a Train Song” (Live)
Billy Strings and his band will now take a couple of weeks off the road before rounding out their touring year in December with arena shows in Louisville, KY (12/5, 12/6), Tulsa, OK (12/10), Fort Worth, TX (12/12), and Austin, TX (12/13, 12/14). Find tickets to upcoming Billy Strings tour dates here.
Billy Strings Finally Gets His Circle Pit At Newark’s Prudential Center [Photos/Video]
Read our obituary for Todd Snider here or revisit our most recent interview with him from December 2024 here.
Check out the full setlist and a selection of photos from Billy Strings’ Newark finale at the bottom of this page. Listen to a complete audio recording of the Newark show and the rest of the concerts from Billy’s November run via nugs, and access livestreams of all of his upcoming December tour dates with a nugs All Access subscription. Not a subscriber yet? Get started here. [Editor’s note: Live For Live Music is a nugs affiliate. Ordering your subscription via the links on this page helps support our work covering the world of live music. Thanks for reading!]
Setlist [via BillyBase]: Billy Strings | Prudential Center | Newark, NJ | 11/15/16
Set One: Play A Train Song (Todd Snider) [1], [2], The Fire On My Tongue, Ridin’ That Midnight Train, Heartbeat Of America, In The Morning Light, All Time Low [3] > Running, Gild the Lily, Seven Weeks in County, Away From The Mire
Set Two: Catch and Release [4], Brown’s Ferry Blues [4], Georgia Buck [5], Pyramid Country > Know It All, My Alice, Be Your Man, I’m a Natural Born Gamblin’ Man, Charlie’s Birthday Breakdown, This Old World, Love Like Me, Hide and Seek
Encore: Pancho & Lefty, Tennessee
Notes: [1] FTP – Todd Snider; [2] Todd Snider, who was a prolific singer – songwriter well known in the East Nashville music scene, passed away Nov. 14; [3] Last Time Played 2025-05-25 | 50 show gap; [4] Billy Strings solo; [5] Billy Strings solo on clawhammer banjo; [6] Last Time Played 2023-10-04 | 167 show gap.
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[Correction: A previous version of this article noted that Trey Anastasio also posted a video of “Play a Train Song”. The video Anastasio posted was actually “If Tomorrow Never Comes”. We regret the error. The article has also been updated to include Kitchen Dwellers’ cover of “Play a Train Song” and Billy Strings’ story about Todd Snider from his Saturday show.]