Jimmie Rodgers
Meridian
Life dates: September 8, 1897 to May 26, 1933
Induction Date: 2017
Category: Music
“Jimmie Rodgers, of course, is one of the guiding lights of the 20th century, whose way with song has always been an inspiration to those of us who have followed the path”
— Bob Dylan
Born in Meridian in September 1897, Jimmie Rodgers – known as the Father of Country Music, the Singing Brakeman, and the Blue Yodeler – learned to sing at church and taught himself to play guitar. At the age of 14, he started working as a water boy for his father’s railroad crew, spending the next 12 years on the railroad.
In 1924, Rodgers contracted tuberculosis and turned his attention to music. He joined the Tenneva Ramblers in 1927; a talent scout offered them a recording session. It was here that Rodgers recorded “Sleep, Baby, Sleep,” the solo hit that made him famous.
Rodgers continued to record songs that would become country music classics and rock-and-roll forerunners. The most popular were his 12 different sequels to the song “Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas).”
In 1933, he traveled to New York to record new songs. During this session, he recorded “Mississippi Delta Blues” and “Years Ago” – his last recordings. On May 26, 1933, Jimmie Rodgers died.
Though his career spanned only six years, Rodgers had a profound, lasting impact. He has been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the Blues Hall of Fame. His song “Blue Yodel No. 9” was selected as one of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll,” and Rodgers himself was ranked number 33 on CMT’s 40 Greatest Men of Country Music.