Jimmie Rodgers went to Bristol, Tennessee in 1927 to audition for a recording company. He recorded 2 songs the next day and went home. So determined to make it as an entertainer, he traveled to New York to find the men and get more recorded. They recorded 4 songs. One was "The Blue Yodel" or "T for Texas". It sold half a million copies. He was a superstar for the remainder of his life.
Rodgers was Elvis 20 years before Elvis. I'm not sure how he got away with it, but he played negro music to white folks WAY before that ever happened. He was the first white rock and roller. He played the blues and he did it well. Here's the Queen of Rockabilly doing one of his songs.
He was the King of the yodel. Every recording he ever did has a yodel on it. It was expected of him and he left no one disappointed. This is the first Jimmie Rodgers song I ever heard. It was early in the morning on NPR as the sun was coming up melting the frost off my windows. I cried like a baby. He sounded so pure with hope and sadness mixed into one.
He had contracted Tuberculosis in 1924 at age 27, maybe giving him the drive to live life to the fullest. He died 9 years later in 1933. He was only 35.
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