Iron Road To The Western Sky

An A.I. song from ‪@HeadwindsAIMusic‬ about traveling across the U.S.A. coast to coast in the late 1800s on steam power trains.

SUNO was asked to create an upbeat, steampunk style song at least three minutes long about the hardship and sense of adventure while traveling on the first steam engine rail lines across the U.S.A. from coast to coast. use instruments but don't reference the instrument name. Use Banjo, Harmonica, Fiddle, Acoustic guitar, mouth organ, squeeze box, honky-tonk piano, train whistles, and sound of steam.

(folk, Upbeat steampunk folk with jangling Americana grit; brisk shuffle groove, layered plucky strings and wheezing reeds, train ambience and steam bursts woven into tempo, Verses stay story-driven and tight, with call-and-response gang vocals on key lines; choruses explode into stomps and claps, stacked harmonies, and whistling hooks, Mid-song breakdown leans into wheezy, metallic textures before a final, rousing singalong outro, Male vocals, acoustic, steampunk)

Lyrics:
Chalk on the ticket
Grease on my hands
Teeth of the track
Bite into the land
Steam sighs
Sky shivers
Metal heart starts to rise

Bought one way
East harbor haze behind me
Crate full of tools
Boot soles thin
But they drum like a marching band
Coal smoke curling
Writing questions on the sand

Crowd on the platform
Faces all stamped with doubt
“Boy That thing jumps the rails
You won’t climb out”
But the cogs kept turning
Like a watch that wouldn’t lie
I stepped on
Chest burning
For a different kind of sky

[Chorus]
Iron road to the western sky
Rattle my bones
Let the sparks fly high
Every bolt singing
“you might break”
Every mile humming
“you might make”
Iron road
Roll and never ask why
We just lean into the shake
Chasing down that western sky

Day three
Black dust
In the seams of my lungs
Cards on a crate
Old man swears he’s young
Says
“lost three crops
And a house to the river’s jaw
Chasing rain
Chasing jobs
Now I’m chasing this iron draw”

We rock through cut stone
Fresh scars in the hill
New town every sunrise
Half-built
Half still
Kids wave from the siding
Bare feet in the clay
We wave back
Knowing
We can’t afford to stay

[Chorus]

Night wind leaks
Through the gaps in the wall
Metal teeth under us
Chew
Never stall
A widow from Boston
Clutches maps like they’re gold
Says
“back there
They wrote my story
This way
It’s untold”

We share dry bread
Swap ghosts
Share names
She laughs at her fear
Then watches the flames
Through the grate
That glow
Licks every bruise
Every scar
Like a furnace that knows
What brittle people are

Every jolt says “leave”
Every whistle says “stay”
Every echo off the canyon
Says “pay
Or be paid”
We’re a string of fragile cabins
Tied to a runaway spark
Faces pressed to the window
Rolling straight through the dark

Iron road to the western sky
Rattle my bones
Let the sparks fly high
Every bolt singing
“you might break”
Every mile humming
“you might make”
Iron road
Roll and never ask why
We just lean into the shake
Chasing down that western sky

Climb
Climb
Over bone-white spine of stone
Tracks like stitches
Sewing coasts that never spoke
Storm hits sudden
Rain hammers rust and chrome
We sway
We swear
This machine might carry us home

What’s home
Anyway?
The town
Or the try?
The porch
Or the road
Where your fear learns to fly?
“Hold tight!”
As the floor begins to shake

If the world splits open
We’ll ride right through the break

[Chorus]

Then plains
Wide plains
Grass bowing in rows
We chase our own smoke
Where the tailwind blows
Buffalo bones
Gleam pale in the heat
Old paths buried
Under our iron feet

Some nights I feel
Them walking below
Silent
Patient
Pacing our roll
This line cuts deep
Through stories never told
Every mile I take
I feel the weight
And hold

[Chorus]

One wheel chipped
Somewhere past Cheyenne dirt
We stop dead
Men cursing through torn shirts
Hands black
Shirt torn
Sweat stings every cut
We lean into stubborn steel
And refuse to give up

A girl from the last car
Starts a rough
Crooked tune
Soon half the train
Is howling at the moon
Bare heels stomp
On the boards till they creak
Pain in every joint
Joy in every shriek

[Chorus]

End of the line
Salt in the distant air
Golden edge of water
Wind in my hair
I touch the hot frame
Whisper
“we survived”
You and your turning gears
Taught my fear to drive.

End Lyrics: