Friday Videos: Jimmie Rodgers, Carter Family
Jimmie “The Singing Brakeman” Rodgers was the first country star ever. He really was a brakeman, back before air brakes, until tuberculosis forced him to quite.
Tuberculosis took Jimmie’s life, although he performed to the end. Often during his later performances, he’d have to stop because of the coughing fits. The audience would yell “Spit it up Jimmie and sing us another!”
Jimmie died during a recording session in New York. The TB was so bad that he had to sleep for a couple of hours on a cot between each take.
Of interest to Philadelphia readers, when you see the restored RCA building in Camden (and by restored I mean “converted to condos”), you’re looking at country music history. Here’s how it looked back in the day. It was RCA that first sent music scout Ralph Peer down south to recruit hillbilly performers, and it was RCA that first recorded Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, and countless others.
Jimmie Rodgers: “Waiting for a Train”, “Daddy and Home”, and “T for Texas” (also known as Blue Yodel #1)
Speaking of the Carter Family, here is the only existing footage of two of the original Carter Family members, Maybelle and Sara (A.P by this time was deceased). The Carter Family story is complicated and quirky, so I’ll leave it to Wiki to give you the basics. And a personal note: my parents, and especially my father, never cared for country music (the real stuff that is, not the audio equivalent of dogshit they put on the radio today). One listen to the Carter Family changed all that. The volume may be a little low on these clips.
Sweet Fern
Cannonball Blues
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April 6th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptHere’s how it looked back in the day. It was RCA that first sent music scout Ralph Peer down south to recruit hillbilly performers, and it was RCA that first recorded Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, and countless others. … [...]