Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Time: 5:50 PM
Song: The City of New Orleans
Artist: Steve Goodman
Mode of Consumption: Listening to “The Essential Steve Goodman” vinyl album.
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/6sQv6XMvSp0PB0cuuS6Dfz?si=f315bd4e4b204014
“So, was this Arlo or Woody Guthrie that sang this?” Jodi asked.
“Well, it was Arlo, but I don’t really know who did this first or wrote it. We’ll have to check the writing credit on the label when it’s done.”
We finish eating and do dishes. I take the album off the turntable.
“So, who has the writing credit?” She asks.
“It doesn’t say.”
She reaches for her phone.
“Goodman wrote it and released it. Guthrie released it a year later and that’s when it first became a hit. Willie Nelson’s version went to No. 1 on the country charts.”
When I do a search on Spotify before starting this post, Goodman’s version isn’t even in the first list of suggestions. There’s Guthrie and Nelson and Johnny Cash and John Denver and Jimmy Buffett. Goodman comes farther down the list than you would expect for being the original.
I picked up this album at the sale on Saturday. It was one of two Goodman albums I bought. We have three Goodman albums already in the collection. Jodi was the first to get interested in him. I’ve grown fond of him as he was a contemporary of John Prine.
In fact, it was a disappointment Saturday that I didn’t find any Prine albums considering there were several Goodman albums in the lot.
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