Jimmy Rodgers Rode A Train - The Del McCoury Band

He started as a water boy on his daddy’s railroad gang
He loved to listen to the way the old black bluesman sang The magic rubbed off on him
He was pickin his guitar
He wrote songs about the southern sky

And the wind-swept prairie starts
He dreamed about the day when all the folks would know his name On that New Orleans and northeastern
Jimmy Rodgers rode a train

He had to quit the railroad when he caught that ol TB
He heard about a record man up in Bristol Tennessee
August ’27 it was a roarin time
But the Great Depression changed the world in 1929
But he entertained the people and helped them with their pain Travellin across the country

Jimmy Rodgers rode a train

He sang about old love letters
The day before he died
“The last blue yodel” sounded like the lonesome whistle cried somewhere down below That Mason Dixon line
The singing brake man was about to take that long last ride
But he was running out of track
Thru the Mississippi rain back home to meridian
Jimmy Rodgers rode a train