Lil Jay Litzner was a freight-train hopping musician, Woody Guthrie style. Jay traveled with his wife Rosie, singing his songs, helping clean up post-Katrina New Orleans, fighting for freedom from labor and political oppression, fighting a drug addiction, and making friends across the country. In 2006, while on his way to California for the winter, Jay fell to his death from a freight train.

His friends made their way to his home town of Detroit for his memorial service, and they brought stories of their adventures with Jay, stories of what his friendship meant, and stories of what his loss meant. These stories are compiled in his biography, Railroad Man, The Legend of Lil Jay.