Jimmie Rodgers

Induction Year: 1970

Birth Name: James Charles Rodgers

Birth Date: 09-08-1897

Place of Birth: Meridian, Mississippi

Death Date: 05-26-1933

Place of Death: New York, New York

Jimmie Rodgers is often called "The Father of Country Music." He wasn't the first to record it. However, his distinctive melding of old-time tunes, sentimental parlor songs, Tin Pan Alley pop and the blues captivated the public and inspired countless other musicians to follow his footsteps into country music. Many of the songs he recorded and wrote — such as "In the Jailhouse Now," "Mule Skinner Blues" and "Waiting for a Train" — have become standards.

Born in Mississippi, the son of a railroad man, Rodgers worked the railroads on and off for a dozen years in his teens and twenties (hence his later nickname "The Singing Brakeman"). He also tried other odd jobs as well as occasional performances with medicine and minstrel shows. In 1924, he contracted tuberculosis. In that day and age it was a death sentence. There was no cure. A less cocksure man would have wadded up his dreams and thrown them away. Rodgers simply used tuberculosis as an excuse to give up railroad work and focus on music.

He was discovered by Ralph Peer in the famous 1927 recording sessions in Bristol, Tennessee, where the Carter Family also first recorded. In his second 1927 session, in New Jersey, Rodgers recorded his self-penned "Blue Yodel (T for Texas)." The jaunty country blues, punctuated by Rodgers' exuberant yodels, was his commercial breakthrough. It sold in the hundreds of thousands and was the first of a series of 13 blue yodels.

He recorded prolifically: 110 titles in less than six years, the equivalent today of two albums a year. Along the way, he expanded the possibilities for country music, recording alongside string bands, jug bands, Hawaiian musicians, pop orchestras, even jazzman Louis Armstrong on "Blue Yodel No. 9."

Tuberculosis claimed his life at the age of 35 in a New York City hotel room. But his influence proved undying. Thousands of country musicians were inspired by his music. In fact, Gene Autry, Jimmie Davis, Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb all began their careers as yodeling imitators of Rodgers before forging their own styles. Tubb, Snow, Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard recorded tribute albums to Rodgers.

He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961 and to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. In 1997, Bob Dylan organized and released a lively all-star Rodgers tribute album, including performances by Bono, Willie Nelson, Jerry Garcia and Van Morrison.
 

"Anniversary Blue Yodel (Blue Yodel No. 7)"

(written with Elsie McWilliams)

Jimmie Rodgers 1930  
Gene Autry 1930  
Frankie Marvin 1930  
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys 1941  
Hank Snow 1953  
Doc Watson 1994  
Merle Haggard 2002  

"Any Old Time"

Jimmie Rodgers 1930  
Gene Autry 1931  
Merle Travis 1946  
Ernest Tubb 1951  
Webb Pierce 1956  #7 country
George Jones 1956  
Maria Muldaur 1973  
Fats Domino 1978  
Tony Rice 1983  
Alison Krauss 1997  
Steve Forbert 2002  

"Blue Yodel (T for Texas)"

Jimmie Rodgers 1928  
Riley Puckett 1928  
Frankie Marvin 1928  
Moonshine Kate 1930  
Cliff Carlisle 1930  
Texas Ruby 1937  
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys 1937  
Merle Travis 1948  
Grandpa Jones 1962  #5 country
Everly Brothers 1968  
Tompall & His Outlaw Band 1976  #36 country
Lynyrd Skynyrd 1976  
Dwight Yoakam 1997  
Johnny Cash 2003  
 

"Blue Yodel No. 2 (My Lovin' Gal, Lucille)"

Jimmie Rodgers 1928  
Frankie Marvin 1928  
Whitey McPherson 1937  
Lefty Frizzell 1951  
 

"Blue Yodel No. 4 (California Blues)"

Jimmie Rodgers 1929  
Gene Autry 1929  
Carson Robison 1929  
Frankie Marvin 1929  
Bill Monroe 1947  
Merle Haggard 1969  
John Fogerty 1973  
The Seldom Scene 1978  
Merle & Doc Watson 1981  

"Blue Yodel No. 8 (Mule Skinner Blues)"

(written with George Vaughn)

Jimmie Rodgers 1931  
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys 1940  
Roy Acuff 1940  
Woody Guthrie 1945  
The Maddox Brothers & Rose 1948  
Odetta 1956  
Ramblin' Jack Elliott 1958  
The Fendermen 1960  #5 pop, #16 country
Harry Belafonte 1962  
The Osborne Brothers 1962  
Jose Feliciano 1964  
Hank Williams Jr. 1965  
Merle Haggard 1969  
Dolly Parton 1970  #3 country
Jerry Reed 1971  
The Country Gentlemen 1973  
Lester Flatt 1974  
Grandpa Jones 1979  
Tony Rice 1984  
The Cramps 1990  
Bob Dylan 1994  
Sweethearts of the Rodeo 1996  
Van Morrison 1997  
Rhonda Vincent & the Rage 2005  
Gretchen Wilson 2006  
 

"Daddy and Home"

(written with Elsie McWilliams)

Jimmie Rodgers 1928  
Gene Autry 1929  
Bill Cox 1929  
Arkie the Arkansas Woodchopper 1931  
Red River Dave 1940  
Tanya Tucker 1989  #27 country
Robin & Linda Williams 2007  
 

"Everybody Does It in Hawaii"

(written with Elsie McWilliams)

Jimmie Rodgers 1929  
Carson Robison 1930  
Frankie Marvin 1930  
Bob Wills 1938  
Chet Atkins & Hank Snow 1969  
Hank Snow 1970  
Steve Forbert 1997  

"In the Jailhouse Now"

Jimmie Rodgers 1928  
Frankie Marvin 1928  
Arkie the Arkansas Woodchopper 1929  
Webb Pierce 1955  #1 country
Johnny Cash 1962  #8 country
Leon Russell 1973  
Sonny James 1977  #15 country
Willie Nelson & Webb Pierce 1982  #72 country
Steve Earle & the V-Roys 1997  
The Soggy Bottom Boys 2001  soundtrack: O Brother Where Art Thou
 

"Mother, the Queen of My Heart"

(written with Slim Bryant)

Jimmie Rodgers 1932  
Dwight Butcher 1933  
Doc Hopkins 1936  
Merle Haggard 1969  
Jerry Lee Lewis 1971  
 

"My Old Pal"

(written with Elsie McWilliams)

Jimmie Rodgers 1928  
Bill Cox 1929  
Red River Dave 1940  
Lefty Frizzell 1951  
Merle Haggard 1969  
 

"My Rough and Rowdy Ways"

(written with Elsie McWilliams)

Jimmie Rodgers 1930  
Gene Autry 1930  
Bill Cox 1930  
Lefty Frizzell 1951  
Webb Pierce 1961  
Merle Haggard 1967  
Doc Watson 1967  
Hank Thompson 1969  
Hank Snow 1970  
Steve Forbert 2002  
 

"Peach Pickin' Time Down in Georgia"

(written with Clayton McMichen)

Jimmie Rodgers 1933  
Dwight Butcher 1933  
W. Lee O'Daniel 1935  
Elton Britt 1968  
Merle Haggard 1969  
Willie Nelson 1997  
Merle Haggard 2002  
 

"Prairie Lullaby"

(written with Billy Hill)

Jimmie Rodgers 1933  
Dwight Butcher 1933  
Light Crust Doughboys 1935  
Geoff & Maria Muldaur 1967  
Leon Redbone 1990  
 

"T.B. Blues"

(written with Raymond Hall)

Jimmie Rodgers 1931  
Gene Autry 1931  
Pete Seeger 1962  
Leon Redbone 1978  
 

"The Brakeman's Blues"

Jimmie Rodgers 1928  
Frankie Marvin 1928  
Cliff Carlisle 1930  
Lefty Frizzell 1951  
Chris Thile 2006  
 

"The Soldier's Sweetheart"

Jimmie Rodgers 1927  
Frankie Marvin 1928  
 

"Travellin' Blues"

(written with Shelley Lee Alley)

Jimmie Rodgers 1931  
Gene Autry 1931  
Bill Cox 1931  
Lefty Frizzell 1951  
Ernest Tubb 1956  
Merle Haggard 1969  
 

"Treasures Untold"

(written with Ellsworth T. Cozzens)

Jimmie Rodgers 1928  
Frankie Marvin 1928  
Vernon Dalhart 1928  
Asa Martin 1933  
Lefty Frizzell 1951  
Hank Snow 1953  
Doc Watson 1972  

"Waiting for a Train"

Jimmie Rodgers 1929  
Riley Puckett 1929  
Carson Robison 1929  
Gene Autry 1930  
Wilf Carter 1943  
Jim Reeves 1957  
Johnny Cash 1963  
Hank Snow 1963  
Billy Walker 1968  
Furry Lewis 1969  
Merle Haggard 1969  
Boz Scaggs 1969  
Jerry Lee Lewis 1970  #11 country
Stonewall Jackson 1971  
Dickey Lee 1972  
Sonny James 1976  
Dr. John 1983  
Dickey Betts 1997  
Jorma Kaukonen 2002  
Steve Forbert 2002  

Jimmie Rodgers

Induction Year: 1970