The Country Music Hall of Fame rekindled my interest in Jimmie Rodgers. That’s Jimmie Rodgers the father of country music, not to be confused with Jimmie Rodgers the Bobby Darinesque 50’s pop artist. Any other fans on board?
Absolutely.
Another blue yodel lover here, fer sure. I think of him as a jazz/blues player who just happened to be a hick.
Yeah, he’s really bluesy… his “yodels” are vocalized blues licks (sayeth Wikipedia), so they’re more like scat singing than European yodeling. He must have picked them up when he was on the rails. His story would make an interesting movie…
There’s a dynamic to country and blues that most people miss, and that’s the fact that they are precisely the same thing. The false genre dichotomy between old country and “country blues” makes me sad. These guys learned from each other, in spite of segregation and racism, borrowed each other’s songs, and made music influenced by each other. Hell, Hank Williams was taught guitar by a black man, Rufus Payne. Black people were influenced by “white” country music, and white people were influenced by “black” country blues. Somehow, it became that white folks “stole” black music, etc…which is patently not true. Neither country nor blues would be around if not for each other.
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Good post, Ogre… I very nearly started on the same rant myself… that in the old days, there was no difference between country and blues. I was afraid I’d come off as ignorant and wouldn’t be able to support it. Now I can say, “Ogre’s post is my cite” 
I’d say tuberculosis stole as great a genius when it took Jimmie Rogers as it did when it took Chopin.
Hey guys…thank you for liking my great uncle’s music.
We were listening to some music at poker, Tom Petty etc., and I said, that’s an old Jimmie Rogers song, and everyone said “never heard of him”
Yeah, and it’s a damn shame that some people have no appreciation of roots. As the Carter Family influenced Johnny Cash, Jimmie Rogers influenced a whole legion of country singers and songwriters – not the least of which was Dolly Parton.
I dunno. I thought “Honeycomb” and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” were pretty insipid, even by the standards of the late 50s…wrong Jimmie Rodgers? How about he did some great work with Muddy Waters and…no, that’s Jimmy Rogers and you mean the Singing Brakeman? You people really should make these threads clearer. 
…ummmm… I don’t know if you are beng snarky… but … It’s clearly outlined in the OP who we are talking about.
BTW
Did anyone see the remake of The Longest Yard?
There’s a scene in the movie where Chris Rock makes a jab at country music playing on a radio… It’s one of Jimmie’s songs. Which although it was making fun of it I was still really pleased that one of the sound people had such good taste in music.
Hm… now I’m curious. Which song was it? Was it Jimmie performing it? And what did Chris Rock say?
Dude, are you serious? Do you have an uncle who is also named Jimmie Rodgers, or are you actually related?
I know a guy who’s uncle is Louis Prima… during the resurgence of swing, suddenly everyone knew who that was, but for most of his life his uncle was just some geeky lounge act in Vegas nobody’d heard of.
Yep, I am family… well… Jimmie is only by marriage. I’m Elsie McWilliams great grand son.
The song in the movie is I think Lovesick Blues. I can’t remember.
But essentially Rock says “I don’t know how he can listen to this redneck shit.”
GAH! “Lovesick Blues”? What was I thinking?
…You know… Maybe it was Lovesick Blues and not a Jimmie song at all… Oh man… My brain is not working today…
If it makes you feel better, “Lovesick Blues” is not a Hank Williams original, but an Emmett Miller* song from the same era as Jimmie Rodgers, and could totally pass for a Jimmie Rodgers song if you didn’t know better.
*“The minstrel man from Georgia,” was a big influence on Hank Williams and Bob Willis and other early country greats, but is forgotten by the country music HOF because the minstrel stuff is embarassing and they’d rather forget about it.