The Blue Yodel songs are a series of thirteen songs written and recorded by Jimmie Rodgers during the period from 1927 to his death in May 1933. The songs were based on the 12-bar blues format and featured Rodgers’ trademark yodel refrains. The lyrics often had a risqué quality with “a macho, slightly dangerous undertone”. The original 78 issue of “Blue Yodel No. 1 (‘T’ for Texas)” in 1928 sold more than a half million copies, a phenomenal number at the time. The term “blue yodel” is also sometimes used to differentiate the earlier Austrian yodeling from the American form of yodeling introduced by Rodgers. (More from Wikipedia)
I was also able to tour the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum, where I learned about the disparate forces leading to what is known as country music: rockabilly from Elvis Presley on down (my favorite form of country and, by now, maybe my favorite form of rock and roll as well), yodeling masters (particularly Jimmie Rodgers, whose 1927 hit “Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)” was the first half-million–selling country song), honky tonk (the kind of music heard in early country music clubs, as personified by Hank Williams Sr.), mountain folk music (most importantly the Carter Family), Western music (often in the form of singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers – in fact, for many years the genre was called country and western), and Western swing (basically countrified big-band sounds). I don’t know too much about the latter strand, and Jimmie Rodgers is a bit old-fashioned for my tastes (though I have a compilation CD that I sure hope turns up among those remaining to be cleaned up from Katrina); but I have learned enough about the other foundational musicians over the years and other early forms of country to become a major fan.
(February 2015)
