[Verse]
Jimmie Rodgers had a great affection for the railroads and the men who ran them and during the years he worked on the roads, he spent most of the time with the New Orleans and Northeastern lines which ran between his hometown of Meridian, Mississippi and New Orleans

Jimmie became able to talk in the language of the railroaders, like such expressions as "hog-head," and "hot box," "quill," "ball in the jack," "skinner" always filled his conversation and he wrote songs about these men and their language

The mule skinner was usually a man with a mule who hired himself and his mule out by the day to do whatever had to be done. He might drag ties and rails or he might just move freshly cut timber from the right of way

The mule skinner was the subject of one of Jimmie Rodgers's most popular blue yodels