Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers

Subject: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: olddude
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 11:35 AM

I always was a big fan. I like to play in the jailhouse now. How about you.

jailhouse

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: Richie
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 12:32 PM

I play "jailhouse" and "Waiting for a Train"- Also some of the blues versions- T for Texas.

Since he didn't play in time- playing with him wasn't easy. Late in his career Slim Bryant who I interviewed (unpublished last interview) taled a lot about being Jimmie's guitarist. Jimmie aslo played with McMichen and I have inside info about another song I play- "Peach Pickin' Time."

Richie

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: Ron Davies
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 12:34 PM

What do they have you in for? We Mudcatters can be character references if you need it.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: Will Fly
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 01:18 PM

I love Jimmie Rodgers - I have everything he recorded (I think).

I regularly perform "Waiting For A Train" and "Blue-Eyed Jane". And his personal guitar style - with the extra bars thrown in here and there - is great.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: gnu
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 02:08 PM

My fav.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: PHJim
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 02:27 PM

Gnu - T For Texas was also called Blue Yodel #1. I agree it's a great song.
A few years back I played in a bluegrass group, McCormick, and we did Blue Yodel #2, My Lovin' Gal Lucille. At various gigs we had 3 different mouth harp players sit in with us for this song, Mike Glover, Dave Mowatt and Mike Stevens. Although harmonica isn't really a bluegrass instrument, it sounds great for that song, as did Zeke Mazurek's fiddle.

I still like to do some of Jimmie Rogers' songs, but, since yodelling is beyond my vocal abilities, I play a yodel lick on the guitar.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 03:30 PM

The definitive collection of his recordings was issued by
the German BEAR FAMILY label. Details below.
Best wishes, Thomas.

BEAR FAMILY (G) UPC: 4000127155405   6-CD 1992
JIMMIE RODGERS - THE SINGING BRAKEMAN
DISC 1:
1. Soldier's Sweetheart, The
2. Sleep, Baby, Sleep
3. Ben Dewberry's Final Run
4. Mother Was a Lady
5. T for Texas (Blue Yodel No. 1)
6. Away Out on the Mountain
7. Dear Old Sunny South by the Sea
8. Treasures Untold
9. Brakeman's Blues (Yodeling the Blues Away)
10. Sailor's Plea, The
11. In the Jailhouse Now
12. My Lovin' Gal Lucille
13. Memphis Yodel
14. Evening Sun Yodel
15. My Old Pal
16. Mississippi Moon - (previously unreleased)
17. My Little Old Home Down in New Orleans
18. You and My Old Guitar
19. Daddy and Home
20. My Little Lady
21. I'm Lonely and Blue - (previously unreleased)
22. Lullaby Yodel
23. Never No Mo' Blues

DISC 2:
1. My Carolina Sunshine Girl
2. California Blues
3. Waiting for a Train
4. I'm Lonely and Blue
5. Desert Blues
6. Any Old Time
7. Blue Yodel, No. 5
8. High Powered Mama
9. I'm Sorry We Met
10. Everybody Does It in Hawaii
11. Tuck Away My Lonesome Blues
12. Train Whistle Blues
13. Jimmie's Texas Blues
14. Frankie and Johnny
15. Frankie and Johnny
16. Home Call
17. Home Call - (previously unreleased)
18. Whisper Your Mother's Name
19. Land of My Boyhood Dreams, The
20. Land of My Boyhood Dreams, The
21. Midnight Turning Day Blues (Blue Yodel No. 6)
22. Yodeling Cowboy
23. My Rough and Rowdy Ways
24. I've Ranged, I've Roamed, I've Traveled
25. I've Ranged, I've Roamed, I've Traveled
26. Hobo Bill's Last Ride

DISC 3:
1. Mississippi River Blues - (previously unreleased)
2. Mississippi River Blues
3. Nobody Knows But Me
4. Anniversary Blue Yodel
5. Anniversary Blue Yodel - (previously unreleased)
6. She Was Happy Till She Met You
7. Blue Yodel, No. 11
8. Blue Yodel, No. 11
9. Drunkard's Child, A
10. That's Why I'm Blue
11. Why Did You Give Me Your Love? - (previously unreleased)
12. Why Did You Give Me Your Love?
13. My Blue-Eyed Jane
14. Why Should I Be Lonely?
15. Moonlight and Skies
16. Pistol Packin' Papa
17. Take Me Back Again
18. Those Gambler's Blues
19. I'm Lonesome Too
20. One Rose, The
21. For the Sake of Days Gone By
22. Jimmie's Mean Mama Blues
23. Mystery of Number Five, The
24. Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. 8)

DISC 4:
1. In the Jailhouse Now, No. 2 - (Take 2)
2. Standin' on the Corner
3. T.B. Blues - (previously unreleased)
4. T.B. Blues
5. Travellin' Blues - (previously unreleased)
6. Travellin' Blues
7. Travellin' Blues - (previously unreleased)
8. Jimmie the Kid
9. Jimmie the Kid - (previously unreleased)
10. Why There's a Tear in My Eye
11. Wonderful City, The
12. Let Me Be Your Sidetrack - (previously unreleased)
13. Let Me Be Your Sidetrack
14. Let Me Be Your Sidetrack - (previously unreleased)
15. Jimmie Rodgers Visits the Carter Family
16. Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers in Texas, The
17. When the Cactus Is in Bloom
18. Gambling Polka Dot Blues
19. Looking for a New Mama - (previously unreleased)
20. Looking for a New Mama
21. What's It?
22. My Good Gal's Gone Blues - (previously unreleased)
23. My Good Gal's Gone Blues
24. Southern Cannonball

DISC 5:
1. Roll Along, Kentucky Moon - (previously unreleased)
2. Roll Along, Kentucky Moon
3. Hobo's Meditation
4. Hobo's Meditation - (previously unreleased)
5. My Time Ain't Long
6. Ninety Nine Year Blues
7. Mississippi Moon
8. Mississippi Moon - (previously unreleased)
9. Down the Old Road to Home
10. Groundhog Rootin' in My Backyard
11. Home Call
12. Mother, The Queen of My Heart
13. Rock All Our Babies to Sleep
14. Whippin' That Old T.B. - (previously unreleased)
15. Whippin' That Old T.B.
16. No Hard Times
17. No Hard Times - (previously unreleased)
18. Long Tall Mama Blues
19. Peach Pickin' Time in Georgia
20. Gambling Bar Room Blues
21. I've Only Loved Three Women
22. In the Hills of Tennessee
23. Prairie Lullaby
24. Miss the Mississippi and You

DISC 6:
1. Sweet Mama Hurry Home
2. Barefoot Blues
3. Dreaming with Tears in My Eyes
4. Cowhand's Last Ride, The
5. I'm Free from the Chain Gang Now
6. Dreaming with Tears in My Eyes
7. Yodeling My Way Back Home
8. Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel (Women Make a Fool Out of Me)
9. Yodeling Ranger, The
10. Old Pal of My Heart
11. Old Love Letters
12. Mississippi Delta Blues
13. Somewhere Down Below the Dixon Line
14. Years Ago
15. Singing Brakeman, The
16. Pullman Porters, The - (previously unreleased, Take 1)
17. In the Jailhouse Now, No. 2 - (Take 2)
18. Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. 8)
20. Mother, The Queen of My Heart
21. Never No Mo' Blues
22. T for Texas (Blue Yodel No. 1)
23. Daddy and Home
24. Memphis Yodel - (previously unreleased)
This box set includes a 60-page booklet with unpublished photos and extensive notes by Nolan Porterfield

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 04:21 PM

you and my old guitar completely forgot about that awesome song

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: fat B****rd
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 04:26 PM

I'll probably never see the Mississippi, but I miss it already. Great artist. Hi Dan.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 06:14 PM

Daddy and Home does it for me. I also like Away Out on the Mountain. I have about a dozen of the old Regal Zono green label 78s. I have one of his anthologies somewhere too. I love country yodelling.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: The Sandman
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 06:47 PM

i like him

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 09:08 PM

Any Old Time
covered by Maria Muldaur with Ry Cooder.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 09:10 PM

Whoops, that link contains the whole LP but Any Old Time is the first tune.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 14 Jun 13 - 04:24 AM

Two traditional tributes to Jimmie Rodgers:

Chemirocha

(In the village of Kapkatet, Kenya in the early 1950′s, members of the Kipsigi tribe somehow came across a few 78 records of Jimmie Rodgers' Blue Yodels. Convinced that such strange sounds could not come from a human, the voice was attributed to a centaur-like spirit they called Chemirocha. This half-man half-antelope is honored in fertility rites where young Kipsigi maidens dance seductively to the Jimmie Rodgers records, begging him to join them in a leaping dance in hopes that Chemirocha will jump completely out of his clothes.

The Kipsigi villagers also sing various songs to celebrate Chemirocha. One of the only recorded instances of these hymns is this gorgeous, haunting version played on a pentatonic wishbone lyre and accompanied by a pair of Kipsigis girls.)

*

Away Out On the Mountain

(Jane Turriff, born 1915 in Fetterangus, Aberdeenshire, a member of the Stewart family of travellers & famed singers of traditional folk song & ballad.)

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 14 Jun 13 - 04:43 AM

My favourite is "Old Pal of My Heart".

There's something about referring to the love of your life as your "pal" that's simultaneously bathetic and really endearing. A seriously cute love song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVzIcPjIq8A

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: kendall
Date: 14 Jun 13 - 10:55 AM

I was raised on his music. Always liked "Daddy and home."

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 14 Jun 13 - 11:40 AM

Jack,
Wow!
Both tracks amazing. Loved Jane's yodelling. It's a bit of a bugger that I could understand more of the Kipsigi chant than the Aberdeenshire song. For some strange reason Jane's singing on this reminded me of old Appalachian recordings I've heard.

Ta!

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: Ron Davies
Date: 14 Jun 13 - 01:58 PM

He did a huge array of great stuff. I really like doing "Hobo's Meditation"--love the message, the melody, the easygoing nature of it--and the extended metaphor.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 05 Nov 15 - 10:22 PM

updates on the "Chimirocha" story (both by Ryan Kailath, a producer at radio station KCRW, in Los Angeles):

In A Kenyan Village, A 65-Year-Old Recording Comes Home (NPR June 28, 2015)

CHEMIROCHA: HOW AN AMERICAN COUNTRY SINGER BECAME A KENYAN STAR (Atlas Obscura November 5, 2015)

~ Becky, in Ashland, Oregon at the moment

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: GUEST,DrWord
Date: 05 Nov 15 - 11:19 PM

Made my day seeing this thread! The Chemirocha story is amazingwonderful. Two weeks ago, an old timer asked for 'hobo bill's last ride' - I had done a JR tune, and a hobo one that week. Told him I'd check it out. Found the tube and listened a few times. Classic Rogers. This morning I told Jake I wouldn't be able to sing it for him, as I've never learned to yodel…
Check out the 'cat this evening, & here's olddude's old thread with a fab thread title. & yeah! I did 'In the jailhouse now' this morning with my regular 'choir' of care home residents. That Kenyan story will stay with me ~ thanks for those posts!

keep on pickin'
dennis

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: GUEST,DrWord
Date: 05 Nov 15 - 11:23 PM

Typo alert ~ I spelt his name rong
dennis

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: Wesley S
Date: 06 Nov 15 - 12:46 PM

" I wouldn't be able to sing it for him, as I've never learned to yodel…"


Hey it's still a good song without the yodel. Sing it anyway.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: GUEST,Drawled
Date: 06 Nov 15 - 03:30 PM

I guess I was excusing myself on two grounds. Firstly, though Jake would have loved it, yodel or no, it mightn't have any resonance with the majority of the group. And, my late brother DID yodel, and pretty well ~ I really like to 'cover' old tunes I feel capable of performing well. The tune in question has yodelling as an integral bit. I do agree, Wes ~ sing it anyway!
keeponpickin'
dennis

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 07 Nov 15 - 10:12 AM

If you like "Hobo Bill's Last Ride" you might like to check out the similarly good "Hobo Bill" ("Ride on, ride on, Hobo Bill") by Martha Copeland from 1927. It's on youtube.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: GUEST,DrWord
Date: 07 Nov 15 - 10:36 AM

Thanks, Joseph. If I keep this up, I'll have a whole set of hobo tunes! The combination of folk posting this old stuff on YouTube and folk like Joseph pointing to it--ain't this 'cat wunnerful?
keep pickin'
dennis

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: Western Trails
Date: 13 Nov 15 - 10:12 PM

The first record I ever bought was a Jimmie Rodgers 78: "In the Jailhouse Now," and "Ben Dewbarry's Final Run."

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 16 Jun 21 - 12:24 PM

Well, I grew up in the UK in the 1950s with Jimmie's music. My uncle Gerard had been singing Jimmi's songs since the 1930s complete with great yodels. The great thing about Jimmie is that he clearly learned his blues songs from black singers but Jimmie doesn't sound like he's copying them in the slightest. A true original.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 16 Jun 21 - 04:26 PM

Yes Jimmie did use a blues format for some of his songs and like many others used some blues singer's terminology but some of his songs were written by his sister-in-law I think you will find.

Songs like Lulu Walls or Way out on the Mountain do not appear to me to come from a black tradition.

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: DonMeixner
Date: 16 Jun 21 - 05:06 PM

It was because of Jimmie Rodgers and Roy Rogers I aspired to be come a yodeler. Mississippi Delta Blues, Peach Pickin' Time In Georgia, The Blue Yodels all were door openers for a new style of performing. It is my opinion that while Jimmie was a good yodeler Roy Rogers and by extension The Sons of The Pioneers were exceptional. But I will maintain that it was Jimmie Rodgers who set the style.

As far as my aspirations have gone I do ok. But I still can't yodel up a train whistle.

Don

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: The Sandman
Date: 16 Jun 21 - 05:27 PM

lulu walls suposedly written by a p carter and was recorded by the orignasl carter family in their second camden recording session. goebell reeves [texas drifter] al;ways claimed he taught jimmie to yodel , debatable perhaps, who knows

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: The Sandman
Date: 16 Jun 21 - 05:28 PM

the most accomplished yodeller i ever heard was bill haley

Subject: RE: Lets talk Jimmie Rodgers
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 17 Jun 21 - 12:11 AM

See here: Lyr Add: The Songs of Jack Neville for these and three others -
Lyr Add: MISSISSIPPI DELTA BLUES (Neville, Rodgers)
Lyr Req: Sweet Mama Hurry Home (Jimmie Rodgers)

Rodgers and Neville were typical Yank black-face vaudeville minstrels for their era. Anything goes. Ferera and Franchini (Hawaiian Serenaders) covered Old Black Joe and Suwannee River in medley with Vernon Dalhart on vocals. Have fun sorting that one by genre.

You'll also find quite a bit of Hawaiian influence in early Yank cowboy music. Kama & Salazar backed both Jimmie Rodgers and stand-in-replacement cousin Jesse Ro(d)gers on more than one Jack Neville tune, also recorded in the same San Antonio studio.

However, island yodel is more like Patsy Cline's warbled Blue lyric than the ol' Tyrolean 'yodel-ay-ee-hoo' interjection. The so-called blue-yodel somewhere in between methinks.

Jimmie Rodgers - Jimmie The Kid (1931)

Uncredited:
Mike Cordova, bass
M. T. Salazar, guitar
Charles Kama, steel guitar