I. The Wild Blue Yodel of Jimmie Rodgers, the "Singing Brakeman"
Jimmie Rodgers became known for his singing and yodeling. He was taught to play the guitar by railworkers and hobos. He later became a brakeman himself on the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad. He toured with humorist Will Rogers and recorded with Louis Armstrong.
In 1997, Bob Dylan contributed to a tribute of major artists for an album of Rodgers' songs. Bob said, "The songs were different than the norm. They had more of an individual nature and an elevated conscience...I was drawn to their power." He added, "Jimmie Rodgers, of course, (was) one of the guiding lights of the 20th century, whose way with song (has) always been an inspiration to those of us who followed the path. He was a performer of force without precedent with a sound as lonesome and mystical as it was dynamic. He (gave) hope to the vanquished and humility to the mighty."
He was influential to Ozark poet Frank Stafford, who composed a series of "blue yodel" poems, and a number of later blues artists, including Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy and Howlin' Wolf. Rodgers was Wolf's childhood idol. He tried to emulate Rodgers' yodel but found his efforts sounded more like a growl or a howl. "I couldn't do no yodelin', so I turned to howlin'. And it's done me just fine."
Rodgers' influence was also heard in Tommy Johnson and Mississippi John Hurt. Rodgers was designated "The Father of Country Music" as well as being inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
II. Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodels"
Jimmie Rodgers wrote a signature series of songs, or "blue yodels." Below are a complete listing of these songs.
"Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)"
"Blue Yodel No. 2 (Lovin' Gal Lucille)"
"Blue Yodel No. 3 (Evening Sun Yodel)"
"Blue Yodel No. 4 (California Blues)"
"Blue Yodel No. 5 (It's Raining Here)""
"Blue Yodel No. 6 (She Left Me This Mornin')"
"Anniversary Blue Yodel"
"Blue Yodel No. 8 (Mule Skinner Blues)"
"Blue Yodel No. 9 (Standin' On the Corner)"
"Blue Yodel No.10 (Ground Hog Rootin' in My Backyard)"
"Blue Yodel No. 11 (I've Got a Gal)"
"Blue Yodel No. 12 (Barefoot Blues)"
"Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel (The Women Make a Fool Out of Me)"
"The songs were based on the 12-bar blues and featured Rodgers' trademark yodel refrains. The lyrics often had a risque quality with a macho, slightly dangerous undertone."
Jimmie Rodgers' yodeling refrains, perhaps mimicking a mournful train whistle, were integral to the Blue Yodel songs. Rodgers' loping and melancholy vocal ornamentations had been described as 'that famous blue yodel that defies the rational and conjecturing mind."
III. The Blue Yodel of Martin Guitar
C.F. Martin Guitar Company commemorated the 100th anniversary of Jimmie Rodgers' birth with a limited edition replica of the legendary "Blue Yodel" guitar. The 000-45JR in rosewood was another sign of Martin's tribute to the great recording artists of the past.
"America's Blue Yodeler" made nearly all his personal recordings with his Martin 000-45. Ernest Tubb performed with the guitar for four decades afterwards. "Jimmie Rodgers" name was inlaid on the fretboard, "Blue Yodel" on the headstock and "Thanks" on the backside.
IV. The Wild Blue Yodel
Yodeling was a form of singing which involved repeated changes of pitch during a single note. The singer switched between the low-pitch chest register and the the high-pitch head register or falsetto.
Yodeling was a form of announcing the yodeler's location and identity. In 1928, blending Alpine yodeling with traditional work, blues, hobo and cowboy music Jimmie Rodgers released his recording "Blue Yodel No. 1." Rodgers' "Blue Yodel" created an instant national craze for yodeling in the United States.
Herders in the central Alps used yodeling to call their stock and communicate between Alpine villages. The Mbuti of the Congo used yodeling and distinctive whistles in their gathering and hunting songs to call each other. The African slaves in the United States communicated with "field hollers," a long, loud, musical shout, rising and falling and breaking into falsetto."
Abbe Niles wrote an opinion piece about Jimmie Rodgers acknowledging Jimmie Rodgers' first Blue Yodel had "started the whole epidemic of yodeling blues that now rages." "Listening to race records is nearly the only way for white people to share the Negroes' pleasures without bothering the Negroes."
The "Tarzan yell" was the yodel-like call of the fictional character Tarzan as portrayed by Johnny Weissmuller in films based upon the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The yell was described as "the victory cry of the bull ape."
V. Flatt and Scruggs
Before my senior year in high school, I left the church choir, gave up on garage bands and was given a Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar as a birthday gift. I felt at peace with myself, with the world and the Gibson hummingbird. Alas, I had one more karmic engagement to show up for before prematurely retiring from music to pursue a medical degree.
I had a childhood friend who progressed through the public schools like myself to where we were seniors together at Paschal High School in Fort Worth. We sang in the church choir together and were roommates on the youth choir trips, which included New Orleans and Santa Fe.
He was a talented musician on both guitar and banjo. He went on to become a top Nashville session player for many country acts. He had the idea to form a bluegrass act with another mutual friend, fashioned on a local Fort Worth country show, "The Wilburn Brothers." "Teddy" and "Doyle" were actual kinship brothers, with rhinestone suits and pompadours.
"Teddy," my church friend handled the banjo and our other friend, "Doyle" sang lead vocals. I was strangely named "Big Brother Lester" managing the guitar. Without trying, it dawned on me years later that something else subconsciously was at work: Teddy was the 5-string banjo player, the gifted Earl Scruggs, while I was the guitar player who tended to sing (Lester) Flatt. In a supportive dream, I met a group of blues players indeed who called me, "Flat," my blues handle, or nickname.
Flats were important to the blues scale, which was a diatonic major scale incorporating a lowered or bent 3rd, a lowered or bent 7th and sometimes a lowered or bent 5th to approximate melodic notes that originated in African work songs. The "blue note" was heard as a slight drop in pirch on the third, the seventh and sometimes the fifth.
My friends and I met happily with the bluegrass sound. Teddy and I attended a Flatt & Scruggs concert at the Will Rogers Auditorium in Ft. Worth and went backstage afterwards to meet the Foggy Mountain Boys. Teddy became a country artist, Doyle changed to stand-up comedy, including hand bone, while Big Brother Lester embraced the blues. So much for kids who had to find themselves.
