Jimmie Rodgers

James Charles Rodgers, the 'Singing Brakeman' and 'Father of Country Music,' was one of the first nationally popular recording artists and a crucial figure in the cross-pollination of white and Black musical traditions in the American South. A former railroad worker from Meridian, Mississippi, he recorded 110 sides for Victor Records between 1927 and 1933, many of them 'blue yodels' that blended country instrumentation with twelve-bar blues structures and lyrics drawn directly from the African American tradition. He recorded with Louis Armstrong and the Louisville Jug Band, among other Black musicians, at a time when such collaborations were commercially and socially unusual. His recordings sold millions and his blues-infused vocal style influenced Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzell, and the entire trajectory of country music. He died of tuberculosis in 1933, recording his final sessions so weak he had to rest on a cot between takes.