Mumford and Sons take America by Train!

Mumford and Sons! You know they're that English rock-folk band thats been on the iTunes top ten albums for like the past 5 months! Their album Sigh No More is literally, in my opinion, one of the best albums I have ever listened to! This year the band was nominated for two Grammy Awards. They also won the ARIA Music Award for Most Popular International Artist and the Brit Award for Best British Album. As you can see they are kind of a big deal right now.

This past April Mumford and Sons, along with Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, and Old Crow Medicine Show announced that they would be embarking on a tour unlike any other (to me though it seems much like a modern day Festival Express ). The tour was not so much inspired by some insane push for high-speed rail but it was actually a push for the opposite. It seems like the bands created this tour to try and capture the somehow forgotten romance on the rails. The bands rode on an Amtrak Special made up of vintage rail cars from the 1950's and 60's and traveled through America's Southwest, eating, sleeping, recording, and without a doubt, partying while on the train.The bands visited the six US cities of Oakland CA, San Pedro CA, Chandler AZ, Marfa TX, Austin TX, and New Orleans LA.

Anything that gets Americans to fall back in love with trains is aces in my book. This country has long lost its fascination with trains, and a tour like this could help recapture that romance for the rail. The band rented the vintage cars for this special train from trains museums throughout California and the locomotives from Amtrak. This tour also goes along with Amtrak's 40th anniversary which Aaron and I will be discussing in a post VERY soon! The train consisted mostly of classic California Zephyr, Western Pacific, and Southern Pacific cars which were all manufactured by the Pullman Company. These luxury cars were the pride of the railroad back in the 50's and 60's. They featured dining cars with five star dining, sleeper cars with all of the luxuries of a home, and observation cars that showed amazing views. This was the way to travel back in the day and I really hope that someday very soon train travel will become what it once was in its hay day. 

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Sources: Rollingstone.com VH1.com railroadrevivaltour.com