Songs I Love To Play: Waiting For A Train (Jimmie Rodgers Cover)

Who is Jimmie Rodgers, you may ask? Well...you may. Jimmie Rodgers was born in 1897 in either Mississippi or Alabama, depending on who you want to believe. He worked for a time as a railroad brakeman, but his true passion was music. He was also diagnosed at a young age with tuberculosis, which limited his ability to perform labor. Rodgers formed a band and got a regular radio show in North Carolina in 1927. Between 1927 and 1933, Rodgers recorded 110 songs over 47 different recording sessions. He died in 1933 at the age of 35, just 2 days after recording four last songs..."Old Love Letters". "Mississippi Delta Blues", "Somewhere Down Below The Dixon Line", and "Years Ago".

How important were those 110 songs he laid down in such a short time? When the country Music Hall Of Fame was opened in 1961, there were three inaugural members. Hank Williams, legendary publisher and songwriter Fred Rose, and Jimmie Rodgers. He was elected to the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1970, and the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1986. Rodgers is often cited as one of the most important figures in not only country music, but southern music...American music.

I first became familiar with Jimmie Rodgers in the most unexpected way. It was through Boz Scaggs. Before there was the Lido Shuffle and his eternal association with what is now known as Yacht Rock, Boz was a young and hungry blues singer. He had just left the Steve Miller Band, and released his self titled album in 1969. This album was a gem. It included legendary guitarist Duane Allman, and an absolutely scorching version of the Fenton Robinson blues classic "Loan Me A Dime". And it also had the Jimmie Rodgers classic, "Waiting For A Train" (with Allman on slide). I was a kid, and I was hooked on Jimmie Rodgers...as well as Duane Allman.

This is that Boz Scaggs album. It's not like anything else he's recorded since. Well worth checking out!

Anyway...the important thing here is the song. Jimmie Rodgers first recorded this in 1928. Boz Scaggs did it in 1968 Here's me, just trying to keep up with my heroes in 2018.

WAITING FOR A TRAIN
words and music by JIMMIE RODGERS

All around the water tank waiting for a train
A thousand miles away from home sleeping in the rain
I walked up to a brakeman gave him a line of talk
He said if you've got money boy I'll see that you don't walk
I haven't got a nickel not a penny can I show
Get off get off you railroad bum and he slammed the boxcar door

He put me off in Texas a state I dearly love
The wide open spaces all around me the moon and stars up above
Nobody seems to want me or to lend me a helping hand
I'm on my way from Frisco going back to Dixie Land
Though my pocketbook is empty and my heart is full of pain
I'm a thousand miles away from home just a waiting for a train

© Peermusic Publishing