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Jimmie Rodgers Saga

“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”. Bob Dylan

In 1927, when Jimmie Rodgers did his first recording with Victor
Talking Machines, who would later become RCA, the entertainment

industry was in its' early days of development. The "flickers" were

now called "talkies" and radio was becoming the wave of the future.

Country music was called Hillbilly or "Race" music and Rock and Roll

was some quarter of a century down the musical trail.

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 crisis-crossed 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. He has had tribute albums done to him by

Lefty

Frizzell in 1951, Ramblin' Jack Elliott in 1959, Merle Haggard in 1969 and Bob Dylan in 1997.

Merle introduces the 94 year old Slim Bryant after playing
"Mother Queen of My Heart " which he recorded, as did
Jimmie Rodgers. Slim played guitar with Rodgers in 1932

In 1969 Merle released a tribute album to Jimmie
Rodgers called SAME TRAIN DIFFERENT TIME

In 1997, Bob Dylan did a tribute CD

to Jimmie Rodgers titled
The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute

His is the voice in the wilderness of your head...
only in turning up the volume can we determine
our own destiny. Bob Dylan

Jimmie’s “T For Texas” sells over a million copies—a blockbuster even by today's standards. In 1929, Columbia Pictures brings him to Hollywood to make a movie, then called a “short”, while there he

becomes the first white man to record with a black man, when he records with Louis Armstrong

Ralph Peer Jr. is on Merle's bus with him talking about Jimmie
Rodgers and his dad back in the early days... Ralph Peer, Sr.
discovered and produced Jimmie Rodgers and there are stories
to be told by these two fellers seen talking on Merle's bus...

Norm Stevens, who is in Merle's band and played guitar with
Lefty Frizzell, Merle Haggard and Buck Page (rt), who
formed the Riders of the Purple Sage in 1936, setting on
Merle's bus after the interview for our Saga

You will not believe the footage we have

of Les Paul in the JIMMIE RODGERS SAGA

Dave Somerville founding member/lead vocal for the Diamonds,
Aaron Neville, Saga Producer Benford Standley and American's
last singing cowboy Buck Page from his Riders of the Purple Sage

Aaron Neville, who has a cut on the Bob Dylan that we
will be using in our soundtrack came to the old Radio
Recorders where we had a great interview session with
him, Buck Page and Dave Somerville. Jimmie recorded

some of his biggest hits in this room in 1930.

click to see more of this shoot

The Jimmie Rodgers Saga will follow the musical trail blazed by this pioneer of

the entertainment business. From the Minstrel and Medicine Shows of yesteryear,

which traveled the roads by wagon to Bob Dylan’s Tribute to Jimmie Rodgers’

and on to the Jimmie Rodgers Saga DVD by way of the Internet—Jimmie’s
presence is a legacy.

I have footage of the late Buck Owens talking to Merle Haggard some about

Jimmie Rodgers on Merle's bus, while on tour with Bob Dylan

“We are a people starving for self-definition, and history is the medicine. It has nothing to do with the past. It has everything to do with the present.”

Director Ken Burns

This Saga is dedicate to my old saddle pal...

Jimmie Dale Court, who was the grandson of Jimmie

Rodgers. On his stationary it said "The son of the

daughter of the Father of country music." A % of the

proceeds will go to his children...Jimmie died at 41, while

he and I were working on a movie deal with the sharks

in Hollywood...and fighting the good fight...

Buck and Norm talking about Jimmie Rodgers, both of these
ole Pioneer Troubadours were influenced by Rodgers...

Jimmie Rodgers famous Martin Guitar

where we took some great pictures in

the Museum in Meridian, Mississippi

Ramblin' Jack Elliott released an Album tribute to

Jimmie Rodgers and Woody Gutherie in 1959 and

we have been honored to work with Ramblin' Jack

Slim and Merle sing "Mother, Queen of My Heart"

Jimmie Rodgers Treatment

I am in front of Blue Yodlers Paradise where Jimmie

Lived in Texas before his death in 1933...

As the new century began there was only ten miles of pavement in the country, oil was discovered
in Texas and the U.S. Steel Corp. was formed. Gibson began to make guitars and the first movie
with a plot, “The Great Train Robbery” is released. At 13 years of age Jimmie Rodgers joined a
Medicine Show. “Memphis Blues” had just become the first blues song written down and pub-
lished, and Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Rag Time Band” was the popular tune. We will see how
the years Jimmie spent in the south playing music on the railroads, with ex-slaves and hobos
effected the course of his music.

THE SAGA

AARON NEVILLE

HAGGARD & BRYANT