"Steve Goodman: Facing the Music" is Clay Eals' biography of the man who wrote the song "City of New Orleans." Photo by Gina Jett, Clay Eals.

Steve Goodman, who wrote the song, “City of New Orleans,” is the subject of an 800-page biography published this month. Veteran Seattle journalist Clay Eals , who worked eight years for the Oregonian and one year for the Corvallis Gazette-Times, is the author of the new book, “Steve Goodman: Facing the Music.”

Eals will be the guest of Bob Goldberg from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday, June 5, on Goldberg’s “All Kinds of Folk” program on KMUN public radio, 91.9 FM. Besides interviewing Eals, Goldberg plans to showcase Goodman’s extensive musical influence on other performers, such as Jimmy Buffett.

Two Astoria bookstores will host signing sessions that afternoon by Eals, who will be at Lucy’s Books, 348 12th St., from 1 to 3 p.m., and Godfather’s Books, 1108 Commercial Street, from 4 to 5 p.m. Eals will be available to sign books and chat with Goodman fans.

Goodman is best known for writing the 1970 train song and anthem, “City of New Orleans,” and was a familiar presence in concert halls and on radio and television.

The book, published by ECW Press, comes with an 18-track CD of songs written and performed by others in tribute to Goodman.

With 400,000 words and more than 540 photos, including a 16-page color section, the large-format biography is a comprehensive look at the captivating, Chicago-based troubadour. It also is a portrait of an era and delves deeply into the social and political milieu of the baby boom generation.

Eals, who lived in Eugene from 1969 to 1981 and Corvallis from 1981 to 1982, interviewed 1,067 people for the Goodman book. The sources ranged from musical celebrities to Goodman’s most famous high-school classmate, U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who performed with him in a variety show at their suburban Chicago school in 1964.

Best-selling author and radio host Studs Terkel wrote the book’s preface, and Arlo Guthrie, who popularized “City of New Orleans” in 1972, penned the foreword.

Besides Terkel and Guthrie, the book’s interviewees include John Prine, Steve Martin, Jimmy Buffett, Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Randy Newman, Paul Anka, David Allan Coe, Judy Collins, Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, John Sebastian, Leo Kottke, Gordon Lightfoot, John Hartford, Phoebe Snow, Jackie DeShannon, Marty Stuart, Maria Muldaur, Mimi Fariña, Tom Rush, Bobby Bare, Lily Tomlin, Michael Smith, Fred & Ed Holstein, Janis Ian, Bryan Bowers, Martin Mull, Chad Mitchell, Rosanne Cash, David Amram, Samantha Eggar, Tom Dundee, Howard Armstrong, Jim Post, Carl Reiner, Doc Watson, Jo Mapes, Len Chandler, David Geffen and Loudon Wainwright III.

Throughout his career, Goodman’s music ranged from hilarious to touching to provocative and included such classics as “You Never Even Call Me by My Name,” “Banana Republics” and “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request.”

A major theme of the book is living with the awareness of mortality, as Goodman did for his entire adult life. Diagnosed with leukemia at age 20 and not expected to live much longer, Goodman managed to survive and thrive while privately, then publicly, fending off this fatal disease for more than 15 years.

Eals, 55, is the author of a 1996 biography, “Every Time a Bell Rings: The Wonderful Life of Karolyn Grimes,” of the child actress who played Zuzu in the 1946 film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

For more information about the Goodman book and Eals’ schedule, visit www.clayeals.com or e-mail ceals@comcast.net

For more information on KMUN-FM, visit www.coastradio.org. For more information on Lucy’s Books, visit www.lucysbooks.net and for more information on Godfather’s Books, call (503) 325-8143.