This post features “Freight Train” with a link to the solo guitar tab (travis-picking) and the sheet music (chords, melody, and lyrics). All music transcriptions are available for download as PDFs.

Freight Train

“Freight Train” is an American Folk Song written by Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten, when she was a teenager, sometime in the early 20th century. “Freight Train” was performed in a couple of ways by Elizabeth Cotten: She accompanied her voice with the guitar at times, and she could also play the melody on the high strings while doing the bass line on the low strings.

In the video below, I play a fingerstyle solo guitar arrangement (chord melody) of “Freight Train.”

Freight Train – Tab

This fingerstyle guitar arrangement makes use of the Travis Picking technique, named after Merle Travis. The thumb keeps a steady bass pattern while the fingers pluck the melody and the harmony.

If you are unfamiliar with Travis Picking, check out Two Basic Travis Picking Patterns to develop your technique. 

The complete sheet music tablature (2 Pages) is available as a PDF.

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