Jimmie Rodgers has been described as the “father of country music.” Combining blues from his native Mississippi with a hillbilly style (including a distinctive highland yodel), Rodgers crafted a form that became the template for virtually all subsequent country music. During his brief career, Rodgers left a musical legacy from which generations of musicians have drawn inspiration.
James Charles Rodgers was born on September 8, 1897, in Meridian, Mississippi. Meridian was home to an active vaudeville and dance hall scene which quickly entranced young Jimmie. Before pursuing a show-business career, however, in the late 1910s Rodgers followed in his father’s footsteps and took a job as a brakeman, inspecting passenger trains and assisting the conductor. After being diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1924, Rodgers left railroading, worked for a while as a private detective, and then formed a band, aiming for an easier life as a musician.
In the mid-1920s, Rodgers moved to Asheville, North Carolina, hoping the crisp mountain air would be easier on his failing lungs. His band, the Jimmie Rodgers Entertainers, began working at the city’s WWNC radio station. In August 1927, Ralph Peer, the talent scout for the Victor Talking Machine Company, was holding a recording session across the mountains in Bristol, Virginia. Rodgers’ group had planned to audition, but the night before they were scheduled to leave, Rodgers and his bandmates parted company over the issue of the band’s name. Rodgers ended up recording “The Soldier’s Sweetheart” and “Sleep Baby Sleep” as a solo act.
Rodgers’ first record met with little public reaction. But “Blue Yodel (T for Texas),” recorded a few months later, became the first country record to sell over a million copies, and made Jimmie Rodgers a household name among hillbilly music fans.
Rodgers eventually recorded 110 singles for Victor between 1927 and 1933, including ten more “Blue Yodels.” He sang against a wide variety of backdrops, including Hawaiian music, jazz (most famously, a session with Louis ARMSTRONG), small orchestras, cowboy music, and gospel (recorded with the CARTER FAMILY, the era’s other country superstars). Rodgers himself was never a proficient guitarist: he introduced the characteristic slides of the Hawaiian guitar into his band, complementing his yodelling technique. His record sales were consistently strong until the onset of the Great Depression, when record sales dropped dramatically for almost everyone.
Unfortunately, Rodgers’ health continued to decline, despite the wishful thinking of songs like “Whipping that Old TB.” He refused to slow down his pace, telling his wife, “I want to die with my boots on.” On May 24, 1933, he recorded a dozen sides in one session, including some of his finest work. Two days later, the father of country music was dead of a lung haemorrhage.
Country music (and in turn, rock’n’roll) owes a great debt to Jimmie Rodgers. Countless country singers integrated Rodgers’ work into their repertoires and, until Hank WILLIAMS, every country singer began their career imitating Rodgers. In 1997, some 64 years after his death, he was the subject of a tribute album featuring Bob DYLAN, Steve Earle, Aaron Neville, Dwight Yoakam, and Jerry Garcia, among others.
Rodgers was the first member inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and he was also celebrated by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence.
Greg Bower
SEE ALSO:
BLUES; COUNTRY; HILLBILLY MUSIC.
Porterfield, Nolan. Jimmie Rodgers: The Life and Times of America’s Blue Yodeler (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1992);
Rodgers, Carrie C W. My Husband, Jimmie Rodgers (Nashville, TN: Country Music Foundation, 1975).
The Best of Jimmie Rodgers;
Jimmie Rodgers: The Early Years;
Jimmie Rodgers on Record: America’s Blue Yodeller;
My Old Pal’; Train Whistle Blues;
Way Out on the Mountain.