Jimmie Rodgers
Best known for
Songwriter
Jimmie Rodgers, "The Singing Brakeman," was the foundational figure of commercial country music whose recorded catalog became one of the seedbeds of bluegrass — his "Mule Skinner Blues" became a Bill Monroe signature, and a generation of bluegrass singers from Monroe to Lester Flatt to Hank Snow built on the blue yodels and railroad ballads he cut for Victor between 1927 and 1933.
- Born James Charles Rodgers on September 8, 1897 in Meridian, Mississippi; worked the Mobile and Ohio and the New Orleans and Northeastern railroads as a brakeman, the source of his stage name.
- Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1924; off the rails by 1927 to pursue music full-time.
- Recorded solo at Ralph Peer's Bristol Sessions for Victor on August 4, 1927 — the same sessions that introduced the Carter Family.
- His follow-up Camden, New Jersey session on November 30, 1927 produced "Blue Yodel" ("T for Texas"), which sold over a million copies and launched the recorded-country-music industry.
- Cut more than 120 sides for Victor, RCA Victor, and Bluebird; signature songs include "Waiting for a Train," "In the Jailhouse Now," "Blue Yodel No. 8 (Mule Skinner Blues)" (1930), and "Blue Yodel No. 9 (Standin' on the Corner)" with Louis Armstrong on cornet.
- Bill Monroe debuted at the Grand Ole Opry on November 25, 1939 performing "Mule Skinner Blues" and recorded it as his first solo studio side for RCA Victor on October 7, 1940; the arrangement became one of the foundational bluegrass templates.
- Died of tuberculosis-related pulmonary hemorrhage at the Taft Hotel in New York City on May 26, 1933, two days after his final Victor session.
- Inducted into the inaugural class of the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961, alongside Hank Williams and Fred Rose.