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2016 repress. Originally released in 2000. Train Leaves At Eight is an in-between project, a concept album which is reminiscent of Satisfied Mind (1993), another in-between album with cover versions that became one of the most critically acclaimed recordings in the long career of The Walkabouts. This time they've taken their favorite European songs, from Greece to Portugal, from the Netherlands to Serbia, from Portugal to England to Germany and Slovenia. Features songs written by Mikis Theodorakis, Bosnian born composer Goran Bregovic, Vlado Kreslin, Italian artist Fabrizio De Andre, Spanish composer Lluis Llach, Portuguese songwriter Jose Maria Branco and his wife Manuela De Freitas, French singer-songwriter Francoiz Breut, Jacques Brel, Belgian band Deus, Dutch artist Solex, Hamburg based band Blumfeld, Swedish songwriter Stina Nordenstamm, Al Bystrom (Midnight Choir), and Neu!. Chris Eckman provides background for the release: "Another name for this album might have been: 'Songs From Continental Europe'. That is the place these songs call home. That is the abstraction from which they are born. However, that title would sorely miss the point of this project. This album is not a destination; it is an unfinished, personal journey. It is a quick flare across borders; both imagined and sturdy. It is the faint sound of the train as it turns the corner, away from well-worn landmarks and cultural filing cabinets. This album is a sequence of questions: Why do the trains keep stopping at the same stations? Why do our musical stories seem to travel in only one direction? Why does our luggage seem so worn, when we actually go nowhere? In the end, the only map one needs is the songs themselves. These songs came to us over a period of years. Some arrived in unmarked parcels, some were heard crackling in the night air. Some of them were rumors and some of them were promises fulfilled. All of them came to us shellacked with coincidence and kindness. We certainly must thank the songwriters, the song-givers, the generous musicians, the recordists, and the translators for helping us to pull this album together. Without them, we would still be waiting for the same old train."
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