"This Train", also known as "This Train Is Bound for Glory", is a traditional African-American gospel song first recorded in 1922. Although its origins are unknown, the song was relatively popular during the 1920s as a religious tune, and it became a gospel hit in the late 1930s for singer-guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe.[1] After switching from acoustic to electric guitar, Tharpe released a more secular version of the song in the early 1950s.
The song's popularity was also due in part to the influence of folklorists John A. Lomax Jr. and Alan Lomax, who discovered the song while making field recordings in the American South in the early 1930s and included it in folk song anthologies that were published in 1934 and 1960. These anthologies brought the song to the attention of an even broader audience during the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.[2] Another song, called "The Crawdad Song", uses the same melody.