Jimmie Rodgers

James Charles Rodgers (September 8, 1897 ? May 26, 1933), known as "Jimmie," was a country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling. Among the first country music superstars and pioneers, Rodgers was also known as "The Singing Brakeman", "The Blue Yodeler", and "The Father of Country Music".

Early years

Jimmie Rodgers' traditional birthplace is usually given as Meridian, Mississippi; however, in documents signed by Rodgers later in life, his birthplace was listed as Geiger, Alabama, the home of his paternal grandparents. Rodgers' mother died when he was very young, and Rodgers, the youngest of three sons, spent the next few years living with various relatives in southeast Mississippi and southwest Alabama, near Geiger. He eventually returned home to live with his father, Aaron Rodgers, a foreman on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, who had settled with a new wife in Meridian.

Performing career

Jimmie's affinity for entertaining came at an early age, and the lure of the road was irresistible to him. By age 13, he had twice organized and begun traveling shows, only to be brought home by his father. Mr. Rodgers found Jimmie his first job working on the railroad as a waterboy. Here he was further taught to pick and strum by rail workers and hobos. A few years later, he became a brakeman on the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad, a position formerly secured by his oldest brother, Walter, a conductor on the line running between Meridian and New Orleans.

In 1924 at the age of 27, Jimmie contracted tuberculosis (TB). The disease temporarily ended his railroad career, but at the same time gave him the chance to get back to the entertainment industry. He organized a traveling road show and performed across the Southeastern United States until, once again, he was forced home after a cyclone destroyed his tent. He returned to railroad work as a brakeman in Miami, Florida, but eventually his illness cost him his job. He relocated to Tucson, Arizona and was employed as a switchman by the Southern Pacific Railroad. He kept the job for less than a year, and the Rodgers family (which by then included wife Carrie and daughter Anita) settled back in Meridian in early 1927.

Success

Rodgers decided to travel to Asheville, North Carolina, later that same year. On , at 9:30 p.m., Jimmie, Sam Biglari, and Otis Kuykendall performed for the first time on WWNC, Asheville?s first radio station. A few months later Jimmie recruited a group from Bristol, Tennessee called the Tenneva Ramblers and secured a weekly slot on the station listed as "The Jimmie Rodgers Entertainers."

In late July 1927, Rodgers' bandmates learned that Ralph Peer, a representative of the Victor Talking Machine Company, was coming to Bristol to hold an audition for local musicians. Rodgers and the group arrived in Bristol on , 1927, and auditioned for Peer in an empty warehouse. Peer agreed to record them the next day. That night, as the band discussed how they would be billed on the record, an argument ensued, the band broke up, and Rodgers arrived at the recording session the next morning alone. On Wednesday, Jimmie Rodgers completed his first session for Victor. It lasted from 2:00 p.m. to 4:20 p.m. and yielded two songs: "The Soldier's Sweetheart" and "Sleep, Baby, Sleep". For the test recordings, Rodgers received $100.

The recordings were released on earning modest success. In November, Rodgers, determined more than ever to make it in entertainment, headed to New York City in an effort to arrange another session with Peer. Peer agreed to record him again, and the two met in Philadelphia before traveling to Camden, New Jersey, to the Victor studios. Four songs made it out of this session, including "Blue Yodel", better known as "T for Texas". In the next two years, this recording sold nearly half a million copies, rocketing Rodgers into stardom. After this, he got to determine when Peer and Victor would record him, and he sold out shows whenever and wherever he played.

Over the next few years, Rodgers was very busy. He did a movie short for Columbia Pictures, The Singing Brakeman, and made various recordings across the country. He toured with humorist Will Rogers as part of a Red Cross tour across the Midwest. On , 1930, he recorded "Blue Yodel No. 9" with jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, whose wife, Lillian, played piano on the recording.

Final years

Rodgers' next-to-last recordings were made in August 1932 in Camden, and it was clear that the tuberculosis was getting the better of him. He had given up touring by that time, but did have a weekly radio show in San Antonio, Texas, where he had relocated when "T for Texas" became a hit. Earnings from his recordings enabled Rodgers to build a large house for his family in Kerrville, Texas, a location chosen partly for health reasons. But it was not in Rodgers' make-up to stay still, and his constant touring and recording schedule only hurt his chances of recovering from TB.

With the country in the grip of the Depression, the practice of making field recordings was quickly fading, so in May 1933, Rodgers traveled again to New York City for a group of sessions beginning , 1933. He started these sessions recording alone and completed four songs on the first day. When he returned to the studio after a day's rest, he had to record sitting down and soon retired to his hotel in hopes of regaining enough energy to finish the songs he had been rehearsing. The recording engineer hired two session musicians to help Rodgers when he came back to the studio a few days later. Together they recorded a few songs, including "Mississippi Delta Blues". For his last song of the session, however, Jimmie chose to perform alone, and as a matching bookend to his career, recorded "Years Ago" by himself.

During his last recording session in New York City on May 24, 1933, after years of fighting the tuberculosis, Rodgers was so weakened that he needed to rest on a cot between songs. Jimmie Rodgers died two days later on , 1933 from a lung hemorrhage; he was only 35 years old.

Legacy

When the Country Music Hall of Fame was established in 1961, Rodgers was one of the first three (the others were Fred Rose and Hank Williams) to be inducted. Rodgers was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and, as an early influence, to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. "Blue Yodel No. 9" was selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Rodgers was ranked #33 on CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003.

Since 1953, Meridian's Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Festival has been held annually during May to honor the anniversary of Rodgers' death. The first festival was on , 1953.

Both Gene Autry and future Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis (author of "You Are My Sunshine") began their careers as Jimmie Rodgers copyists, and Merle Haggard and George Jones later did tribute albums. In 1997 Bob Dylan put together a compilation of artists covering Rodgers' songs. In 1969, country singer Merle Haggard released Same Train, A Different Time: Merle Haggard Sings The Great Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers. Haggard also covered "No Hard Times" and "T.B. Blues" on his best-selling live albums "Okie From Muskogee" (1969) and "Fightin' Side of Me" (1970). "Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)" was covered by Lynyrd Skynyrd on their live One More from the Road album.

On , 1978, the United States Postal Service issued a 13-cent commemorative stamp honoring Rodgers, the first in its long-running Performing Arts Series. The stamp was designed by Jim Sharpe (who did several others in this series), who depicted him with brakeman's outfit and guitar, giving his "two thumbs up", along with a locomotive in silhouette in the background.

Rodgers' legacy and influence is not limited to Country music. He was influential to Ozark poet Frank Stanford, who composed a series of "blue yodel" poems, and a number of later Blues artists. Rodgers was one of the biggest stars of American music between 1927 and 1933, arguably doing more to popularize blues than any other performer of his time. Rodgers influenced many later blues artists, among them Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy, and Chester Arthur Burnett, better known as Howlin' Wolf. Jimmie Rodgers was Wolf's childhood idol. Wolf tried to emulate Rodgers's yodel, but found that his efforts sounded more like a growl or a howl. "I couldn't do no yodelin'," Barry Gifford quoted him as saying in Rolling Stone, "so I turned to howlin'. And it's done me just fine."

Rodgers' influence can also be heard in artists including Tommy Johnson, the Mississippi Sheiks, and Mississippi John Hurt, whose "Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me" is based on Rodgers? hit "Waiting On A Train". Elvis Presley has also been quoted as mentioning Jimmie Rodgers as an important influence and stating that he was a big fan.

Historic marker

Meridian, Mississippi, as the birthplace of Jimmie Rodgers, was the first site outside the Mississippi Delta to receive a Mississippi Blues Trail designation. The ceremony was held at the Singing Brakeman Park located on Front Street and emphasized the importance of Rodgers to the development of the blues in Mississippi. Rodgers was known as the "Singing Brakeman" and the train was influential in the development of the blues both in the Mississippi Delta and throughout the state.

Recordings

Title
Record #
Recording date
Recording location
?The Soldier?s Sweetheart?
Victor 20864
August 4, 1927
Bristol, Tennessee
?Sleep, Baby, Sleep?
Victor 20864
August 4, 1927
Bristol, Tennessee
?Ben Dewberry?s Final Run?
Victor 21245
November 30, 1927
Camden, New Jersey
?Mother Was a Lady (If Brother Jack Were Here) ?
Victor 21433
November 30, 1927
Camden, New Jersey
?Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)?
Victor 21142
November 30, 1927
Camden, New Jersey
?Away Out on the Mountain?
Victor 21142
November 30, 1927
Camden, New Jersey
?Dear Old Sunny South by the Sea?
Victor 21574
February 14, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?Treasures Untold?
Victor 21433
February 14, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?The Brakeman?s Blues?
Victor 21291
February 14, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?The Sailor?s Plea?
Victor 40054
February 14, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?In the Jailhouse Now?
Victor 21245
February 15, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?Blue Yodel No. 2 (My Lovin? Gal, Lucille) ?
Victor 21291
February 15, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?Memphis Yodel?
Victor 21636
February 15, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?Blue Yodel No. 3?
Victor 21531
February 15, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?My Old Pal?
Victor 21757
June 12, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?My Little Old Home Down in New Orleans?
Victor 21574
June 12, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?You and My Old Guitar?
Victor 40072
June 12, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?Daddy and Home?
Victor 21757
June 12, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?My Little Lady?
Victor 40072
June 12, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?Lullaby Yodel?
Victor 21636
June 12, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?Never No Mo? Blues?
Victor 21531
June 12, 1928
Camden, New Jersey
?My Carolina Sunshine Girl?
Victor 40096
October 20, 1928
Atlanta, Georgia
?Blue Yodel No. 4 (California Blues) ?
Victor 40014
October 20, 1928
Atlanta, Georgia
?Waiting for a Train?
Victor 40014
October 22, 1928
Atlanta, Georgia
?I?m Lonely and Blue?
Victor 40054
October 22, 1928
Atlanta, Georgia
?Desert Blues?
Victor 40096
February 21, 1929
New York, New York
?Any Old Time?
Victor 22488
February 21, 1929
New York, New York
?Blue Yodel No. 5?
Victor 22072
February 23, 1929
New York, New York
?High Powered Mama?
Victor 22523
February 23, 1929
New York, New York
?I?m Sorry We Met?
Victor 22072
February 23, 1929
New York, New York
?Everybody Does It in Hawaii?
Victor 22143
August 8, 1929
Dallas, Texas
?Tuck Away My Lonesome Blues?
Victor 22220
August 8, 1929
Dallas, Texas
?Train Whistle Blues?
Victor 22379
August 8, 1929
Dallas, Texas
?Jimmie?s Texas Blues?
Victor 22379
August 10, 1929
Dallas, Texas
?Frankie and Johnnie?
Victor 22143
August 10, 1929
Dallas, Texas
?Whisper Your Mother?s Name?
Victor 22319
October 22, 1929
Dallas, Texas
?The Land of My Boyhood Dreams?
Victor 22811
October 22, 1929
Dallas, Texas
?Blue Yodel No. 6?
Victor 22271
October 22, 1929
Dallas, Texas
?Yodelling Cowboy?
Victor 22271
October 22, 1929
Dallas, Texas
?My Rough and Rowdy Ways?
Victor 22220
October 22, 1929
Dallas, Texas
?I?ve Ranged, I?ve Roamed and I?ve Travelled?
Bluebird 5892
October 22, 1929
Dallas, Texas
?Hobo Bill?s Last Ride?
Victor 22241
November 13, 1929
New Orleans, Louisiana
?Mississippi River Blues?
Victor 23535
November 25, 1929
Atlanta, Georgia
?Nobody Knows But Me?
Victor 23518
November 25, 1929
Atlanta, Georgia
?Anniversary Blue Yodel (Blue Yodel No. 7) ?
Victor 22488
November 26, 1929
Atlanta, Georgia
?She Was Happy Till She Met You?
Victor 23681
November 26, 1929
Atlanta, Georgia
?Blue Yodel No.11?
Victor 23796
November 27, 1929
Atlanta, Georgia
?A Drunkard?s Child?
Victor 22319
November 28, 1929
Atlanta, Georgia
?That?s Why I?m Blue?
Victor 22421
November 28, 1929
Atlanta, Georgia
?Why Did You Give Me Your Love??
Bluebird 5892
November 28, 1929
Atlanta, Georgia
?My Blue-Eyed Jane?
Victor 23549
June 30, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?Why Should I Be Lonely??
Victor 23609
June 30, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?Moonlight and Skies?
Victor 23574
June 30, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?Pistol Packin? Papa?
Victor 22554
July 1, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?Take Me Back Again?
Bluebird 7600
July 2, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?Those Gambler?s Blues?
Victor 22554
July 5, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?I?m Lonesome Too?
Victor 23564
July 7, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?The One Rose (That?s Left in My Heart) ?
Bluebird 7280
July 7, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?For the Sake of Days Gone By?
Victor 23651
July 9, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?Jimmie?s Mean Mama Blues?
Victor 23503
July 10, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?The Mystery of Number Five?
Victor 23518
July 11, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?Blue Yodel No. 8 (Mule Skinner Blues)?
Victor 23503
July 11, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?In the Jailhouse Now, No. 2?
Victor 22523
July 12, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?Standing on the Corner (Blue Yodel no. 9)?
Victor 23580
July 16, 1930
Los Angeles, California
?T.B. Blues?
Victor 23535
January 31, 1931
San Antonio, Texas
?Travellin? Blues?
Victor 23564
January 31, 1931
San Antonio, Texas
?Jimmie the Kid?
Victor 23549
January 31, 1931
San Antonio, Texas
?Why There?s a Tear in My Eye?
Bluebird 6698
June 10, 1931
Louisville, Kentucky
?The Wonderful City?
Bluebird 6810
June 10, 1931
Louisville, Kentucky
?Let Me Be Your Sidetrack?
Victor 23621
June 11, 1931
Louisville, Kentucky
?Jimmie Rodgers Visits the Carter Family?
Victor 23574
June 12, 1931
Louisville, Kentucky
?The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers in Texas?
Bluebird 6762
June 12, 1931
Louisville, Kentucky
?When the Cactus Is in Bloom?
Victor 23636
June 13, 1931
Louisville, Kentucky
?Gambling Polka Dot Blues?
Victor 23636
June 15, 1931
Louisville, Kentucky
?Looking for a New Mama?
Victor 23580
June 15, 1931
Louisville, Kentucky
?What?s It??
Victor 23609
June 16, 1931
Louisville, Kentucky
?My Good Gal?s Gone - Blues?
Bluebird 5942
June 16, 1931
Louisville, Kentucky
?Southern Cannon-Ball?
Victor 23811
June 17, 1931
Louisville, Kentucky
?Roll Along, Kentucky Moon?
Victor 23651
February 2, 1932
Dallas, Texas
?Hobo?s Meditation?
Victor 23711
February 3, 1932
Dallas, Texas
?My Time Ain?t Long?
Victor 23669
February 4, 1932
Dallas, Texas
?Ninety-Nine Years Blues?
Victor 23669
February 4, 1932
Dallas, Texas
?Mississippi Moon?
Victor 23696
February 4, 1932
Dallas, Texas
?Down the Old Road to Home?
Victor 23711
February 5, 1932
Dallas, Texas
?Blue Yodel No. 10?
Victor 23696
February 6, 1932
Dallas, Texas
?Home Call?
Victor 23681
February 6, 1932
Dallas, Texas
?Mother, the Queen of My Heart?
Victor 23721
August 11, 1932
Camden, New Jersey
?Rock All Our Babies to Sleep?
Victor 23721
August 11, 1932
Camden, New Jersey
?Whippin? That Old T.B.?
Victor 23751
August 11, 1932
Camden, New Jersey
?No Hard Times?
Victor 23751
August 15, 1932
Camden, New Jersey
?Long Tall Mama Blues?
Victor 23766
August 15, 1932
Camden, New Jersey
?Peach-Pickin? Time Down in Georgia?
Victor 23781
August 15, 1932
Camden, New Jersey
?Gambling Barroom Blues?
Victor 23766
August 15, 1932
Camden, New Jersey
?I?ve Only Loved Three Women?
Bluebird 6810
August 15, 1932
Camden, New Jersey
?In the Hills of Tennessee?
Victor 23736
August 29, 1932
New York, New York
?Prairie Lullaby?
Victor 23781
August 29, 1932
New York, New York
?Miss the Mississippi and You?
Victor 23736
August 29, 1932
New York, New York
?Sweet Mama Hurry Home (or I?ll Be Gone) ?
Victor 23796
August 29, 1932
New York, New York
?Blue Yodel No. 12?
Victor 24456
May 17, 1933
New York, New York
?The Cowhand?s Last Ride?
Victor 24456
May 17, 1933
New York, New York
?I?m Free (From the Chain Gang Now) ?
Victor 23830
May 17, 1933
New York, New York
?Dreaming With Tears in My Eyes?
Bluebird 7600
May 18, 1933
New York, New York
?Yodeling My Way Back Home?
Bluebird 7280
May 18, 1933
New York, New York
?Jimmie Rodger?s Last Blue Yodel?
Bluebird 5281
May 18, 1933
New York, New York
?The Yodelling Ranger?
Victor 23830
May 20, 1933
New York, New York
?Old Pal of My Heart?
Victor 23816
May 20, 1933
New York, New York
?Old Love Letters (Bring Memories of You) ?
Victor 23840
May 24, 1933
New York, New York
?Mississippi Delta Blues?
Victor 23816
May 24, 1933
New York, New York
?Somewhere Down Below the Dixon Line?
Victor 23840
May 24, 1933
New York, New York
?Years Ago?
Bluebird 5281
May 24, 1933
New York, New York

Footnotes

^ Petition for Membership (dated: 20 Oct. 1930), Bluebonnet Lodge No. 1219, San Antonio, Texas; and Interview (6/2006) with James A. Skelton, Pres. of the Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Foundation, Meridian, MS.
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^ Matthew-Walker 1979, p.3
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