1948–1984 · American folk singer-songwriter · Chicago
Steve Goodman (July 25, 1948 – September 20, 1984) was a Chicago folk singer-songwriter who wrote “City of New Orleans” in 1970 after a trip on the Illinois Central line to visit his wife’s family, and first recorded it that year on stage at the Earl of Old Town in Chicago, for the various-artists Dunwich LP Gathering at the Earl of Old Town. The studio version came in 1971 at Quadrafonic Studios in Nashville, for his self-titled Buddah debut ↗, produced by Norbert Putnam and Kris Kristofferson, who had helped him land the deal. The album was praised and did not sell. Goodman lived with leukemia for most of his adult life and died in Seattle at 36; a Grammy for Best Country Song reached him posthumously in 1985, for a song he had already written before most listeners had heard his name.