johnfulmer

It’s all because of his yodel. And we’re talking about Jimmie Rodgers, The Singing Brakeman, The Father of Country Music, The Mississippi Blues Yodeler, first inductee in the Country Music Hall of Fame, Hank Williams’ No. 1 influence and best friend to A.P. Carter, father of country music’s first family.

True royalty. And though I knew of him, I didn’t know who he was, if that makes sense. Then years ago, as a mere pup, I purchased Van Morrison’s “Beautiful Vision” whose song “Cleaning Windows” contains the lyrics:”I went home and listened to Jimmie Rodgers in my lunch break.” And I thought to myself–and remember, I was still wet behind the ears: “Jimmie Rodgers? Isn’t he that hick who yodels?”

Of course, I was wrong. Not about Rodgers being a hick and a yodeler. He was both, and proud of it. I was wrong about that being a good thing. He was the King, the Source, the author of the 13 Blue Yodels, the country music equivalent of the Goldberg Variations.

But who yodels anymore? We watch “American Idol” not “American Yodeler.” Yodeling is conspicuous by its absence on country music radio today, and if it’s used, it’s probably done tongue in cheek, though it must be hard to yodel that way. If it seems quaint now, like an autoharp or hammer dulcimer, or even dopey to new-country fans and hick in a bad way to most urban and suburban Americans, yodeling was a significant part of country’s past.

So, curiosity being my middle name, I began to wonder: Where does yodeling come from? More important to this blog, at least, is who used to yodel and why?

According to Wikipedia–so take this with a few grains of salt, especially the Pygmy part: Yodeling is a long note that “rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register to the falsetto/head register” thus making a high-low-high-low sound. Yodeling is part of several cultures. (Who knew?) Austrians yodeled as a way to communicate between mountain peaks, and it later become part of the region’s folk music. Persians yodeled, Wiki says, and it’s part of Azeri classical music as well as Georgian traditional music. African Pygmies yodel “within their elaborate polyphonic singing.” And, Wiki tells us, yodeling is often used in country music.

So how does the yodel make the leap from deep in the heart of Central Africa, the Azerbaijan/Georgia/Iran region or high in the Austrian mountains to a hillbilly singer born in Meridian Mississippi? The Caucasus, Pygmy and Alpine demographics are barely represented in the American South and country music’s roots are generally considered Appalachian/Scots-Irish. So that’s a question for musicologists and wannbes much more dedicated than I am. I’d rather talk about his style.

Like all of the greats, Jimmie was a sponge, He soaked up influences and his music is a hybrid of blues, jazz, country, all of which means it was a precursor of rock ‘n’ roll music. Rodgers’ music anticipated the future. His personal story is fascinating. You can read about it onAll Music, but here’s the quicky bio: He fought against tremendous odds but was an optimist at heart. He was a railroad brakeman for years before being ravaged by TB. Like Hank Williams, he died young–at 35–but his songs are indelible. He was enormously famous in his time, but the Great Depression and other factors made his life a roller-coaster ride. He was rich, then poor, then rich again, then broke. He sang anywhere for a buck, in minstrel and medicine shows, in nickelodeons, in vaudeville. It’s said he performed in blackface.

He was an entertainer who, I doubt, would have considered himself an “artist,” and this has the perverse effect of making his music and performances pure. I’m reminded of a story–perhaps apocryphal–about The Band being reluctant to perform on a TV set that included a pickup truck and hay bales. As the following video shows, Jimmie Rodgers would have jumped at the chance. He would have been a regular on “Hee Haw.”

Country musicians can seem to be defined by their reserve, and the culture of country music–that is, its base, its fans–understand that this repression of emotion–and this is difficult to explain–can only be released in song. It’s often why country–and blues, for that matter–is about emotional or physical violence. Yet most of the great country singers have fans as loyal as the family dog. Country stars must be approachable to be truly successful; they can’t be above hay bales and pickups, even if its kitsch. But they’re also allowed to be lighthearted, even goofy, as Buck Owens, certainly a country giant and a big influence on rock music, proved as the host of “Hee Haw.”

Rodgers, the thumbs-up optimist, understood the poor, lonely and down-and-out. Only Woody Guthrie and Merle Haggard come close to capturing his concern for that hardworking Everyman who struggles daily to get ahead but always finds himself in the same rut. But Rodgers, a sly performer, understands that Everyman wants to be entertained, too, and this means the novelty tunes and often downright silliness that’s a big part of country.

There’s a thin line between blues/soul and a country, and no one can simultaneously pick the blues and yodel-lay-he-who like Rodgers. Want proof that Rodgers is the fountainhead? Here’s some more from Wiki and Howlin’ Wolf: “Rodgers was one of the biggest stars of American music between 1927 and 1933, arguably doing more to popularize blues than any other performer of his time. (He) influenced many later blues artists, among them Muddy Waters, “Big” Bill Broonzy, and Chester Arthur Burnett, better known as “Howlin’ Wolf.” Jimmie Rodgers was Wolf’s childhood idol. Wolf tried to emulate Rodgers’ yodel, but found that his efforts sounded more like a growl or a howl. “I couldn’t do no yodelin’,” Barry Gifford quoted him as saying in Rolling Stone, “so I turned to howlin’. And it’s done me just fine.”

In this video there’s evidence of the blues connection–and a glimpse at the latent violent side of Rodgers’ otherwise sunny personality. Like the previous YouTube post, it comes from the only known motion picture of Rodgers.