Jimmie Rodgers

Jimmie Rodgers earned the inscription on his brass plaque at the Country Music Hall of Fame that declares, "Jimmie Rodgers' name stands foremost in the country music field as the man who started it all," and the judgment holds true. Known equally as the "Singing Brakeman" and the "Mississippi Blue Yodeler," he saw his six-year run ended prematurely by tuberculosis yet still became country music's earliest star with national reach and the direct inspiration for countless successors ranging from Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, and Hank Williams onward to Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard. He chronicled rounders and gamblers, bounders and ramblers because those were worlds he understood firsthand. At fourteen he took a job as a railroad brakeman and remained on the rails until a pulmonary hemorrhage in 1925 forced him onto the medicine-show circuit. Those railroad years damaged his lungs while sharpening his sound. While most artists of his day confined themselves to mountain or mountain-folk material, Rodgers blended hillbilly country, gospel, jazz, blues, pop, cowboy, and folk strains; many of his strongest numbers were originals he wrote himself, among them "TB Blues," "Waiting for a Train," "Travelin' Blues," "Train Whistle Blues," and his thirteen blue yodels. Though he was not the first performer to yodel on disc, his approach stood apart. The yodel functioned as an essential element of the lyric rather than mere decoration, shifting from mournful and plaintive to happy and carefree according to each song's mood. Sometimes he accompanied himself on guitar alone; at other times a full jazz ensemble complete with horns supported him. Fans could scarcely have imagined a more fitting idol, one who shared their outlook, their emotions, and who voiced the lives of ordinary people with honesty and grace. During his final studio date, tuberculosis had so weakened him that a cot was placed in the room so he could rest between takes before attempting another song. It is unsurprising that later generations of country listeners continued to revere him.

Born the youngest son of a railroad man in Meridian, Mississippi, Rodgers lost his mother in 1904 and went with his older brother to live with their aunt, a former teacher holding degrees in music and English who introduced him to vaudeville, pop, and dancehall styles. When he rejoined his father's household in 1911 he roamed freely through pool halls and rough establishments without landing in serious difficulty. At twelve he tasted early recognition by performing "Steamboat Bill" in a local talent contest, winning the event and promptly setting off with his own traveling tent show. His father retrieved him, yet Rodgers soon ran away once more to join a medicine show; the lure faded by the time his father located him again, and when offered the choice between school and the railroad the boy elected to work the tracks alongside his father.

Over the following decade he held assorted railroad positions along the South and West Coasts. In May 1917 he married Sandra Kelly after only a few weeks of acquaintance; by autumn they had parted, though she was pregnant, and their daughter passed away in 1938. Two years later the divorce became final, and around the same period he met Carrie Williamson, daughter of a preacher. They wed in April 1920 while she was still in high school. Shortly afterward the New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad laid him off, prompting him to take various blue-collar jobs while seeking singing chances. The next three years brought repeated financial and health setbacks, including the death from diphtheria of their second daughter six months after her 1923 birth; Rodgers was traveling with shows at the time. Despite the hardships, those years shaped his emerging style as he refined his signature blue yodel and honed his guitar technique.

Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1924, Rodgers ignored medical advice, left the hospital, and formed a trio with fiddler Slim Rozell and his sister-in-law Elsie McWilliams. He kept working the railroad and medicine shows while performing. Two years after the diagnosis he relocated his family to Tucson, Arizona, hoping the drier climate would help. There he continued singing at local venues until the railroad dismissed him for the outside activities. Returning to Meridian, he and Carrie stayed briefly with her parents before he moved alone to Asheville, North Carolina, in 1927. Too frail for railroad labor, he took work as a janitor and cab driver, sang on a local radio station, and performed at events. He soon shifted to Johnson City, Tennessee, joining the string band the Tenneva Ramblers. Persuading the former trio to serve as his backing group for a regular Asheville broadcast, he placed his name ahead of theirs on the bills. Eventually learning that RCA scout Ralph Peer was recording hillbilly and string bands in Bristol, Tennessee, Rodgers urged the Ramblers to make the trip; on the eve of the audition a dispute over billing caused them to split. Appearing solo, he recorded the standards "The Soldier's Sweetheart" and "Sleep, Baby, Sleep" after Peer passed on his signature piece "T for Texas."

The October 1927 release failed to chart, yet Victor scheduled another session. In November he cut four numbers including "T for Texas," which was retitled "Blue Yodel" and became a massive success, one of the few early country discs to reach a million sales. Shortly afterward Rodgers and Carrie settled in Washington, where he began a weekly local radio program as the Singing Brakeman. Although "Blue Yodel" succeeded, steady sales growth through early 1928 delayed substantial royalties until year's end. By then he had already cut further hits such as "Way Out on the Mountain," "Blue Yodel No. 4," "Waiting for a Train," and "In the Jailhouse Now." Peer varied the accompaniments, sometimes adding two string players and sometimes leaving Rodgers alone; over the next two years they experimented with jazz ensembles including Louis Armstrong, full orchestras, and Hawaiian groups.

By 1929 Rodgers stood as a major attraction whose concerts drew large crowds and whose records sold briskly. That year he appeared in the short film The Singing Brakeman, recorded extensively, and toured nationally. The pace sustained his visibility and income yet accelerated his physical decline. Still he pressed on, cutting more material, constructing a sizable home in Kerrville, Texas, and joining Will Rogers for Red Cross benefit tours aimed at Depression sufferers. By mid-1931 the economic downturn sharply reduced bookings and sales, but Rodgers kept recording. Tuberculosis compounded the setbacks; he limited concerts in 1931 and 1932, and by 1933 his condition forced cancellation of several planned films. He refused to quit, telling Carrie, "I want to die with my shoes on." Early that year finances grew tight, forcing him to play vaudeville houses and nickelodeons. After a radio stint in San Antonio he collapsed in February and entered the hospital. Knowing he was near death, he persuaded Peer to book a May session intended to support his family. Accompanied by a nurse and resting on a cot between numbers, he completed the dates; two days later, on May 26, 1933, a lung hemorrhage ended his life. His body was transported by train to Meridian, where hundreds of fans waited and the locomotive sounded its whistle repeatedly along the route. For several days afterward he lay in state while thousands paid their respects.

The outpouring at his funeral confirmed how deeply he had been cherished. His reach extended far beyond the 1930s, with traces audible throughout the twentieth century in artists from Hank Williams to Merle Haggard. In 1961 he became the first performer elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame; twenty-five years later he entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a founding father. Those distinctions hint only modestly at the lasting mark he left by establishing country music as a commercially viable form.