Country singer/songwriter Tenille Townes is giving back aboard a train this holiday season. Throughout early December, Townes spent several days on the U.S. Holiday Train where she played five shows daily for local communities in support of their food banks.
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This year’s experience coincided with the release of her film Train Track Worktapes: The Documentary. The film features footage from her 2022 holiday train expedition in Canada where Townes spent 50 days on a train performing up to 10 shows a day.
“The fact that it came out while we’re sitting here back on this train was a really cool circle,” Townes tells American Songwriter. “It’s one of the most unique and inspiring touring experiences I’ve ever been a part of. It’s so fun to be in constant motion and to be living on this train.
“The part that continues to inspire me more is seeing these communities rally around their local food banks and bundle up in the cold and they’re showing up,” she continues. Every one of these towns that we stopped in, you’re seeing the best of the human spirit, and that’s so cool to me. It’s a very unique way of traveling around and sharing music, but I love it so much.”
The 17-minute documentary, out now, sonically and visually documents Townes’ time aboard the holiday train in Canada last year. iPhone footage was compiled from Townes, her band, and crew to tell the story of their experience.
Looking back, Townes says it was “one of my favorite touring stories I’ve ever been a part of.” Fans got to hear some of the fruits of her labor earlier this year with the five-track project Train Track Worktapes, and Townes promises there is more to come next year.
“To be honest, I haven’t really figured out how to continue writing while being on the road,” she says. “Those are just two different parts of my brain. But for some reason, this train is … I think there’s enough of a recipe of every day is a little bit more consistent. It somehow opened up this thing in me as a writer that has more space and capacity to be able to internalize what I’m being inspired by around me and figure out how to write about it. All of these songs were very much more about the traveling spirit and I feel so present in that on this train. I think that that’s really helped me as a writer, be able to be in motion and still figure out how to be creative.”
Townes says she’s been writing throughout 2023 and is starting to see the “musical dots connecting” and the meaning and story behind all her songs coming together.
“I’m getting ready to get some new things together here for next year so I feel quite reflective,” she adds. “Looking back, it’s like all these little map dots of songs that have been my experiences over the past year-and-a-half and now to see the threads starting to come together is really cool. … I’ve recorded a few songs and am looking forward to sharing the start of this new project very soon.”
(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
