Introduction - Harnessing the echo - 'Way out there': hillbilly, blues and jazz - 'Blue shadows on the trail': space and place in the imagined West - 'And as the sun sinks slowly in the west': sobbing guitars, distant horizons and the acoustics of otherness - 'How near, how far': inner voices, weird space and the ghostly West - 'Off the wall': blues recording at Sun and Chess Studios, 1947-1954 - 'Train I Ride': Rock 'n' roll echo - 'Train kept a rollin': popular music's new territories - Conclusion.