MOVIE

A powerful music saga evolving from the growth of a new nation and the human conditions interacting with advancements in technology that was the coal in the fire box of the iron horse locomotive creating the steam to move the trends down the main line and the various musical sidetracks. From Rodgers running off with a medicine show at 13 years old with the antagonist pain of losing his mother as a six year old boy to Merle Haggard picking up influences passed to him from Rodgers who also influenced Lefty Frizzell and Bob Wills, to Haggard’s influence then on Gram Parsons, the Eagles, Lynard Skynyrd to Keith and Mick and the Rolling Stones in rock music and on to an endless list of country acts. Merle would hop a freight train running away from home at 11 years old after losing his fiddle playing dad as a boy of nine. Merle plays a big part in the Prequel.

This is the story of a simple man from very humble beginnings, who overcame many tragedies in his life to become, as his plaque at the Country Music Hall of Fame states: "The man who started it all”. It is the story of a man with a very unstable childhood pursuing a dream of being an entertainer, and eventually singing on the radio the top-selling artist in the late 1920'. It is a story of broken hearts and dreams, including the twin tragedies of death and sickness. Ultimately it is the story of being in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the emerging technologies of the day to achieve and surpass childhood dreams and success. It is a story of a man who picked up his craft almost accidentally as he was struggling to make ends meet. A man whose influences are still relevant in the music today.

With the backdrop of the turn of a century, then the great drought leading to the Dust Bowl, on top of the terrible TB pandemic and the 1929 Great Depression. During the hard times we are seeing the early days of recording technology, the talking machine, the wireless, the flickers and the talkies, medicine shows, rag-operas and tent-show, minstrel shows and vaudeville, actors and hucksters, snake doctors and hobos and the great iron horse riding the rails laying the foundation for a new era. Jazz, black-face singers and race music and hillbilly music evolving and setting the stage for country and western music to Rock and Roll... the great music trail cut by Jimmie Rodgers “The man who started it all”.

CUT TO: The Prequel Protagonist #1 Jimmie Rodgers

James Charles Rodgers was born in Giger, Alabama in 1897, the son of a railroad man and in his short life of 35 years he gained many accolades including “The Father of Country Music” 2017 in LA he posthumously received the Lifetime Achievement Grammy, and he was one of the first musicians inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961, where on his plaque it states, “The man who started it all.” In 1985 his song “T for Texas” is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame; 1986 Rodgers is among the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 1987 he receives the W.C. Handy Blues Award and he was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, National Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, Mississippi Music Hall of Fame plus the Songwriter Award, Alabama Music Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, a marker at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, and Mississippi Country Music Trail, and a marker at his Jimmie Rodgers Museum and the Jimmie Rodgers Memorial in Meridian, MS.graph here.

The arch of the characters of Waiting for a Train will ride the rails of inventions on the cutting edge of a powerful saga evolving from the growth of a new nation and the human conditions interacting with advancements and paradigm shifts in technology that was the coal in the fire box creating the steam to move the of the iron horse locomotive down the main line on various show business sidetracks. Dirt-roads before the rail-roads, a nation in darkness until Thomas Edison built Pearl Street Station to light Wall Street in 1882. Les Paul told me about living in darkness as a boy telling me about when his mother got their first “plug in radio” he discovered Jimmie Rodgers, along with history shaking details about how he was influenced by this young man.

The history of the first stars of entertainment in the USA is crucial because it laid the foundation for the modern entertainment industry, shaping cultural norms and societal values. These early icons, emerging during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were pioneers who transitioned from medicine and tent shows to vaudeville stages and silent films to the silver screen, on to the RCA Victrola, records, and radios. Technology itself is always the cutting-edge of show business.

Figures like Thomas A. Edison, with his groundbreaking inventions and creating the first movie studio, his Black Maria and filming stars like Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill, playing pivotal roles in shaping early entertainment. P.T. Barnum, known as the “Greatest Showman,” Tony Pastor Father of Vaudeville, Joseph P. Kennedy ventures into movie making in his R-K-O venture with David Sarnoff who began with Victor Talking Machines and the evolution to RCA Records, Ralph Peer Sr. a pioneer in music publishing, artist management plus Peer discovered Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family and others.

THE CAST

Buffalo Benford -- Producer/writer/creator

Merle Haggard -- Narrator along with Buffalo
Willie Nelson – On the Dylan Tribute
Buck Owens on Jimmie Rodgers with Haggard
Toby Keith
Tanya Tucker
Les Paul
David Frizzell
Kris Kristofferson
Billy Joe Shaver
Aaron Neville – on the Dylan Tribute
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
Bobby Bare
Steve Earle – on the Dylan Tribute
Amos Lee
Rosanne Cash
Frank Mull- 40+ year friend and co-manager of Merle Haggard
Ben Haggard- Son of Merle Haggard
Kenneth Threadgill – Austin music legend helped Janis Joplin
Bill Hartley – Director of the Bristol, Tenn Museum
Bob Livingston – Austin Legend
James McMurtry – Texas legend and sun of Larry McMurtry
John Leventhal – Producer and married to Rosanne Cash
Janette Carter – Daughter of AP Carter of the Carter Family
Buck Page – Founding member of the 1936 Riders of the Purple Sage
Dickey Betts - On the Dylan tribute
Slim Bryant – Recorded with Jimmie Rodgers wrote one of his hits
Kenny Lee Lewis – 30 years with Steve Miller Band and knew Les Paul
David Ball- on the Dylan tribute
Wiley Gustafson – Expert on yodeling
Norm Stevens – Played with Hank Thompson, Lefty Frizzell and Haggard
Ralph Peer, Jr. – his dad discovered Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family
Barry Mazor – Author of Meeting Jimmie Rodgers and Ralph Peer
Nolan Porterfield – Author Jimmie Rodgers
Kathleen Hudson, PhD – Music historian, produces Rodgers festival in Kerrville, Texas

In time Rodgers would become one of the very first inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame along with Fred Rose and Hank Williams in 1961. On his plaque at the Hall of Fame in Nashville to this day it says, “Jimmie Rodgers’ name stands foremost in the country music field as the man who started it all.” Among too many accolades to list them all in this Saga, known as the Father of Country Music, he is the only musician in the world that has been inducted into not only the Country Hall of Fame, add the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Blues, Songwriter and Grammy Halls of Fame. In Los Angeles he receives the Lifetime Achievement Grammy posthumously in 2017. He was the first white man to receive the W.C. Handy Blues Award in 1987, he was the first entertainer to have his picture on a commemorative postage stamp. His life was a rags-to-riches tale reading like the books written by Horatio Alger, and with all happening in his last six years of life.

Back in 1997 I was producing a live streaming concert at the Kerrville Jimmie Rodgers Festival with Willie Nelson. After the successful show I was telling Willie that I was going beyond writing a book on Jimmie Rodgers and was going to Hollywood and producing a documentary on Rodgers. Passing me the joint and looking right in my eyes..."If you want to know something about Jimmie Rodgers you need to talk to Merle Haggard. I am thinking to my stoned self...That is easy for you to say...Yet down the track I met Merle Haggard and he jumped on the train and I am honored to have him help tell this great American Saga...

Like a locomotive, Jimmie Rodgers came into this world with a force that is still strong over one hundred years later. And like the trains that crisscrossed the country, Jimmie Rodgers’ legacy crosses over every aspect of the American music scene. His music echoes in tunes we hear today as his memory is enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame, where on his plaque it states, “The Man That Started It All.” Known as “The

Father of Country Music”, he has garnished the W.C. Handy Blues Award and is in the Grammy Hall of Fame and

the Songwriter Hall of Fame. No other entertainer in history can list these accomplishments.

WAITING FOR A TRAIN

A Virtual Streaming Franchise about the life and times of

Jimmie Rodgers The Father of Country Music.

In the Dylan liner notes of THE SONGS OF JIMMIE RODGERS: A TRIBUTE, he says, “Jimmie Rodgers of course is one of the guiding lights of the 20th Century whose way with song has always been an inspiration to those of us who have followed the path. A blazing star whose sound was and remains the raw essence of individuality in a sea of conformity, par excellence with no equal”.

CHRONICLE # l

JIMMIE RODGERS SAGA

CHRONICLE # ll

THE MAN WHO STARTED IT ALL

1929 Jimmie Rodgers took a train to Camden, New Jersey home of the Victor label, where he would perform in a nine-minute film titled The Singing Brakeman.