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Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers a Tribute


phil

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JIMMIE RODGERS, ALSO KNOWN AS THE SINGING BRAKEMAN AND America's Blue Yodeler, was a true original. The archetype of the guitar-playing singer-songwriter, Rodgers opened a door onto a broad avenue of expression that ran both forward and backward in American folk life and popular culture. From his first recordings, in 1927, to his last, recorded on the eve of his death in 1933, his career was a meeting point for images and folk material from the American South and West, from black and white traditions, and it offered clues to ways in which that material could be blended into the mainstream of popular music.

Rodgers' career straddled the years when America stood on, then slid over, the brink of Depression. His songs, which include some of the best-known tunes in the country repertoire, evoked both the expansive frontier spirit and the longing, backward glance toward home. Along with the Carter Family and a handful of others, he was both a preserver and a popularizer of a precious body of expression. And in many ways he extended that tradition as well, crossing the color line to record with black artists such as Louis Armstrong and blues guitarist Clifford Gibson and, with his short 1929 film The Singing Brakeman, starred in what could be thought of as the first music video.

Born September 8, 1897, near Meridian, Mississippi, to a railroadman father and a mother who died when he was four years old, Rodgers was on the move from his earliest days. He began performing in his early teens, winning an amateur talent contest in Meridian and traveling briefly with a medicine show before going to work full-time for the railroads out of Meridian. For the next fifteen years, Rodgers worked as a section hand and brakeman on railroad lines throughout the South and West, occasionally picking up work as an entertainer. He appeared on radio and in tent shows, and also during this period apparently picked up the lung inflammation that would later be diagnosed as tuberculosis and go on to kill him.

In 1927, in a moment that has long since passed into legend, Rodgers recorded two titles in Bristol, Tennessee during the marathon "Bristol Sessions"; organized by Victor A&R man Ralph Peer, the watershed recordings were the first concerted effort to record white rural music -- then called "hillbilly" music -- for the popular market. Peer recorded many singers and instrumentalists, including the equally significant Carter Family, in addition to Rodgers during those weeks of recording, and those records' brisk sales fueled the growth of what was to become the country music industry.

Rodgers was invited back to the studios in short order, this time to the Victor studios in Camden, New Jersey, where he recorded the first of his Blue Yodels, the famous "T for Texas." Rodgers' Blue Yodels, of which he recorded 13, along with numerous other songs that fit the form but were not designated as such (like "Jimmie's Texas Blues" and "No Hard Times"), were a genre within a genre. Loosely strung outlaw blues lyrics, sung in a sly, jaunty manner, alternated with Rodgers' trademark yodel in a unique overlay of the Southern rounder and the Western cowboy, literally and symbolically representing a blending of the streams of white and black rural music.

Rodgers recorded copiously during in his six years in the studios. His songs ranged across the spectrum from tough blues to sentimental odes to home and mother, and they reflected an America with much of the 19th Century still clinging to it: the lust for mobility and change coupled with the love of the furious pursuit of technology which made that possible (trains, of course, but also the phonographs and radios on which messages from far away could be heard like train whistles in the night); sentimental to a fault about mother and home and innocence, the past was being mortgaged to pay for all that mobility. In Rodgers' repertoire, songs like "Train Whistle Blues," "Let Me Be Your Sidetrack," and "My Rough and Rowdy Ways" exist side-by-side with "Mother, The Queen of my Heart," "The Land of My Boyhood Dreams," and "Down the Old Road to Home."

Earnings from his recordings enabled Rodgers to build a large house for his family in Kerrville, Texas, a location chosen partly for health reasons. But it was not in Rodgers' make-up to stay still, and his constant touring and recording schedule only hurt his chances of recovering from TB. His recordings were phenomenally popular with rural Southern audiences, even in the depths of the Depression. In May 1933, with his health rapidly deteriorating, Rodgers traveled to New York City to make a long series of recordings over the course of eight days. He was so weak that the producer had to provide a cot in the studio, on which he rested between songs. The effort finally proved to be too much for him and Rodgers died in New York's Hotel Taft on May 26.

The list of those whom Rodgers influenced directly is very long and includes Gene Autry, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and many others. Rodgers' influence in the country field is inescapable, both in his singing and guitar style and in the repertoire of songs he wrote or popularized, including "Waiting For A Train," "Miss The Mississippi and You," "My Carolina Sunshine Gal," "Peach Picking Time In Georgia," and "He's In the Jailhouse Now," not to mention his Blue Yodels. His approach was to find later resonance in the bluegrass of Bill Monroe, whose biggest early hit was "Muleskinner Blues" (a reworking of Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #8"); in such Hank Williams tunes as "Honky Tonk Blues" and "Lovesick Blues" (on both of which Williams does a fair yodel himself); and, eventually, in Rock and Roll music, with its blending of white country and black blues traditions.

But Rodgers' claim on our attention doesn't consist solely, or even mainly, of his influence on later performers. Rodgers' voice and guitar itself, haunting and pure, strong yet vulnerable, rising out of recordings made nearly 70 years ago, still has the power to fascinate, to inspire, to excite and to calm, and to conjure an entire world in a few quick images.

Tracks on the tribute album;

1. Dreaming With Tears In My Eyes - Bono

2. Any Old Time - Alison Krauss And Union Station

3. Waiting For A Train - Dickey Betts

4. Somewhere Down Below The Mason Dixon Line - Mary Chapin Carpenter

5. Miss The Mississippi And You - David Ball

6. My Blue Eyed Jane - Bob Dylan

7. Peach Pickin' Time Down In Georgia - Willie Nelson

8. In The Jailhouse Now - Steve Earle & The V-Roys

9. Blue Yodel #9 - Jerry Garcia & David Grisman

10. Hobo Bill's Last Ride - Iris DeMent

11. Gambling Bar Room Blues - John Mellencamp

12. Mule Skinner Blues - Van Morrison

13. Why Should I Be Lonely - Aaron Neville

14. T For Texas - Dwight Yoakam

I think all the tracks are good. Bono does a great heartbreaking lament on Dreaming With Tears In My Eyes. All the country artists put their personal touch on their recordings. Willie Nelson and Iris Dement stick out for me. Van Morrison does a rollicking version of Mule Skinner Blues, with great rolling percussion throughout the song. I believe Dylan was going through his throat problems at this recording and his voice is quite weak and shaky. Sadly, Jerry Garcia died 2 weeks after recording Blue Yodel #9. This might be the last recording he ever did. I don't usually like tribute albums, but this is an exception. This is my first review, I hope it helps.

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Here is some biographical information I found. Hope it helps.

JIMMIE RODGERS, ALSO KNOWN AS THE SINGING BRAKEMAN AND America's Blue Yodeler, was a true original. The archetype of the guitar-playing singer-songwriter, Rodgers opened a door onto a broad avenue of expression that ran both forward and backward in American folk life and popular culture. From his first recordings, in 1927, to his last, recorded on the eve of his death in 1933, his career was a meeting point for images and folk material from the American South and West, from black and white traditions, and it offered clues to ways in which that material could be blended into the mainstream of popular music.

Rodgers' career straddled the years when America stood on, then slid over, the brink of Depression. His songs, which include some of the best-known tunes in the country repertoire, evoked both the expansive frontier spirit and the longing, backward glance toward home. Along with the Carter Family and a handful of others, he was both a preserver and a popularizer of a precious body of expression. And in many ways he extended that tradition as well, crossing the color line to record with black artists such as Louis Armstrong and blues guitarist Clifford Gibson and, with his short 1929 film The Singing Brakeman, starred in what could be thought of as the first music video.

Born September 8, 1897, near Meridian, Mississippi, to a railroadman father and a mother who died when he was four years old, Rodgers was on the move from his earliest days. He began performing in his early teens, winning an amateur talent contest in Meridian and traveling briefly with a medicine show before going to work full-time for the railroads out of Meridian. For the next fifteen years, Rodgers worked as a section hand and brakeman on railroad lines throughout the South and West, occasionally picking up work as an entertainer. He appeared on radio and in tent shows, and also during this period apparently picked up the lung inflammation that would later be diagnosed as tuberculosis and go on to kill him.

In 1927, in a moment that has long since passed into legend, Rodgers recorded two titles in Bristol, Tennessee during the marathon "Bristol Sessions"; organized by Victor A&R man Ralph Peer, the watershed recordings were the first concerted effort to record white rural music -- then called "hillbilly" music -- for the popular market. Peer recorded many singers and instrumentalists, including the equally significant Carter Family, in addition to Rodgers during those weeks of recording, and those records' brisk sales fueled the growth of what was to become the country music industry.

Rodgers was invited back to the studios in short order, this time to the Victor studios in Camden, New Jersey, where he recorded the first of his Blue Yodels, the famous "T for Texas." Rodgers' Blue Yodels, of which he recorded 13, along with numerous other songs that fit the form but were not designated as such (like "Jimmie's Texas Blues" and "No Hard Times"), were a genre within a genre. Loosely strung outlaw blues lyrics, sung in a sly, jaunty manner, alternated with Rodgers' trademark yodel in a unique overlay of the Southern rounder and the Western cowboy, literally and symbolically representing a blending of the streams of white and black rural music.

Rodgers recorded copiously during in his six years in the studios. His songs ranged across the spectrum from tough blues to sentimental odes to home and mother, and they reflected an America with much of the 19th Century still clinging to it: the lust for mobility and change coupled with the love of the furious pursuit of technology which made that possible (trains, of course, but also the phonographs and radios on which messages from far away could be heard like train whistles in the night); sentimental to a fault about mother and home and innocence, the past was being mortgaged to pay for all that mobility. In Rodgers' repertoire, songs like "Train Whistle Blues," "Let Me Be Your Sidetrack," and "My Rough and Rowdy Ways" exist side-by-side with "Mother, The Queen of my Heart," "The Land of My Boyhood Dreams," and "Down the Old Road to Home."

Earnings from his recordings enabled Rodgers to build a large house for his family in Kerrville, Texas, a location chosen partly for health reasons. But it was not in Rodgers' make-up to stay still, and his constant touring and recording schedule only hurt his chances of recovering from TB. His recordings were phenomenally popular with rural Southern audiences, even in the depths of the Depression. In May 1933, with his health rapidly deteriorating, Rodgers traveled to New York City to make a long series of recordings over the course of eight days. He was so weak that the producer had to provide a cot in the studio, on which he rested between songs. The effort finally proved to be too much for him and Rodgers died in New York's Hotel Taft on May 26.

The list of those whom Rodgers influenced directly is very long and includes Gene Autry, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and many others. Rodgers' influence in the country field is inescapable, both in his singing and guitar style and in the repertoire of songs he wrote or popularized, including "Waiting For A Train," "Miss The Mississippi and You," "My Carolina Sunshine Gal," "Peach Picking Time In Georgia," and "He's In the Jailhouse Now," not to mention his Blue Yodels. His approach was to find later resonance in the bluegrass of Bill Monroe, whose biggest early hit was "Muleskinner Blues" (a reworking of Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #8"); in such Hank Williams tunes as "Honky Tonk Blues" and "Lovesick Blues" (on both of which Williams does a fair yodel himself); and, eventually, in Rock and Roll music, with its blending of white country and black blues traditions.

But Rodgers' claim on our attention doesn't consist solely, or even mainly, of his influence on later performers. Rodgers' voice and guitar itself, haunting and pure, strong yet vulnerable, rising out of recordings made nearly 70 years ago, still has the power to fascinate, to inspire, to excite and to calm, and to conjure an entire world in a few quick images.

Tracks on the tribute album;

1. Dreaming With Tears In My Eyes - Bono

2. Any Old Time - Alison Krauss And Union Station

3. Waiting For A Train - Dickey Betts

4. Somewhere Down Below The Mason Dixon Line - Mary Chapin Carpenter

5. Miss The Mississippi And You - David Ball

6. My Blue Eyed Jane - Bob Dylan

7. Peach Pickin' Time Down In Georgia - Willie Nelson

8. In The Jailhouse Now - Steve Earle & The V-Roys

9. Blue Yodel #9 - Jerry Garcia & David Grisman

10. Hobo Bill's Last Ride - Iris DeMent

11. Gambling Bar Room Blues - John Mellencamp

12. Mule Skinner Blues - Van Morrison

13. Why Should I Be Lonely - Aaron Neville

14. T For Texas - Dwight Yoakam

I think all the tracks are good. Bono does a great heartbreaking lament on Dreaming With Tears In My Eyes. All the country artists put their personal touch on their recordings. Willie Nelson and Iris Dement stick out for me. Van Morrison does a rollicking version of Mule Skinner Blues, with great rolling percussion throughout the song. I believe Dylan was going through his throat problems at this recording and his voice is quite weak and shaky. Sadly, Jerry Garcia died 2 weeks after recording Blue Yodel #9. This might be the last recording he ever did. I don't usually like tribute albums, but this is an exception. This is my first review, I hope it helps.

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