NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A preservation project in the community known as “Music City” has added some appropriate individuals to its board of directors.
The Nashville Steam Preservation Society, the non-profit organization working to restore Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis 4-8-4 No. 576, announced last week that it had added Harry Stinson and Jeff Syracuse to its board.
Stinson, a Grammy nominee and inductee in Nashville’s Musicians Hall of Fame in 2022 as a member of Marty Stuart & the Fabulous Superlatives, is a drummer, vocalist, writer and producer with a lengthy and impressive musical history. He combined that background and his interest in trains to co-write (with Stuart) the song “The Duchess, Qeen of the Dixie Line,” released in 2019 as a fundraiser for the restoration project [see “Marty Stuart’s song about NC&StL No. 576 debuts …,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 23, 2019]. Prior to joining the board, Stinson had served as Nashville Steam’s “unofficial music liason,” the organization says.
Syracuse is an associate director, customer relations, for Broadcast Music, Inc., or BMI, one of the two major music licensing firms that ensure songwriters receive royalties for the use of the work. Also a member of the board of the Nashville & Eastern Railroad Authority, Nashville says he has been involved with the 576 project behind the scenes for several years. He has lived in Nashville since 1998, when he moved to the city to compelte a music degree at Middle Tennessee State University.
More information on both men, as well as the rest of the society’s board, is available on the Nashville Steam website.
Please correct the song’s title. It should read: “The Duchess (Queen of the Dixie Line).”