(dramatic orchestral music) - This is the story of Jimmie Rodgers.

The Singing Brakeman, America's Blue Yodeler, the pride of Meridian, Mississippi.

The man who started it all, the father of country music.

Although Jimmie Rodgers' voice is still his legacy of over 100 recordings keeps his memory alive.

A multitude of artists have copied his yodels, his guitar runs, his side comments, his vocal style, but Jimmie Rodgers stands above all the others.

I've been listening to his records for about as long as I can remember and like a lot of people I sing his songs.

There's no comparison but tonight we'll be singing his songs to remember and honor the father of country music.

- [Narrator] And now to tell the story of Jimmie Rodgers, The Singing Brakeman.

Here are John Arnold, Clayton Tyler, Van Williams and special guest, co-author of many of Jimmie's songs, Mrs. Elsie McWilliams.

- Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

My name is John Arnold and about the best way I know to get things started is to ask my good friend, Van Williams, to kick it off with one of the most famous songs that Jimmie Rodgers recorded, and that was "Blue Yodel No.

1" or "T for Texas".

Are you ready, Van?

- Yes, sir.

♪ T for Texas ♪ T for Tennessee ♪ T for Texas ♪ T for Tennessee ♪ T for Thelma ♪ That gal that made a wreck out of me ♪ (yodeling) ♪ If you don't want me, mama ♪ You sure don't have to stall, oh lawd ♪ ♪ If you don't want me, mama ♪ You sure don't have to stall ♪ 'Cause I can get more women ♪ Than a passenger train can haul ♪ (yodeling) ♪ I'm gonna buy me a shotgun ♪ With a great long shiny barrel ♪ ♪ I'm gonna buy me a shotgun ♪ With a great long shiny barrel ♪ ♪ I'm gonna shoot that rounder ♪ That stole away my gal (yodeling) ♪ I'm going where the water ♪ Drink like cherry wine ♪ Lord I'm going where the water ♪ ♪ Drink like cherry wine ♪ 'Cause the Georgia water ♪ Tastes like turpentine (yodeling) (audience applauding) - We'd like to share with you the highlights of the life of a man who pioneered and blazed the way for what is known today as country music.

James Charles Rodgers, later to be known worldwide as simply Jimmie Rodgers.

His short but brilliant lifespan was less than 36 years, he's recording career less than six.

The greatness of this man is evidenced by the fact that in 1961 the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee, installed him as its first member.

He was elected unanimously.

The roots of Jimmie Rodgers' music goes back to the railroad yards of Meridian, Mississippi, where Jimmie's father was a section foreman.

Jimmie's mother died when he was just a kid and Jimmie grew up in the railroad yards there.

He began his railroad career when he was 14, carrying his guitar, a banjo, with him.

The music, his fellow railroad workers and surrounding was to have a tremendous and lasting effect on his career.

Here's a sad old hobo song that Jimmie recorded and this time I'm gonna ask Clayton Tyler, my buddy over here, to hit me out on "Hobo Bill's Last Ride".

Clayton, are you ready?

- I'm ready.

♪ Riding on an eastbound freight train ♪ ♪ Speeding through the night ♪ Hobo Bill, a railroad bum was fighting for his life ♪ ♪ The sadness of his eyes revealed the torture of his soul ♪ ♪ He raised a weak and weary hand to brush away the coal ♪ (yodeling Hobo Bill) ♪ No warm lights flickered around him ♪ ♪ No blankets there to fold ♪ Nothing but the howling wind and the driving rain so cold ♪ ♪ And when he heard a whistle blowing ♪ ♪ In a dreamy kind of way ♪ The hobo seemed contented for he smiled there where he lay ♪ (yodeling Hobo Billy) ♪ Outside the rain was falling on that lonesome boxcar door ♪ ♪ But the leathered form of Hobo Bill ♪ ♪ Lay still upon the floor ♪ As the train sped through the darkness ♪ ♪ And the raging storm outside ♪ No one knew that Hobo Bill was taking his last ride ♪ (yodeling Hobo Bill) All right hit it, Clayton.

(guitar music) Pick that thing.

Yodel one time for us.

Thank you, sir.

♪ It was early in the morning (audience applauding) ♪ When they raised the hobo's head ♪ ♪ The smile still lingered on his face ♪ ♪ But Hobo Bill was dead ♪ There was no mother's longing to soothe his weary soul ♪ ♪ For he was just a railroad bum who died out in the cold ♪ (yodeling Hobo Bill) Thank you.

(audience applauding) Thank you very much, thank you.

Thank you.

Go back with us now to 1920 when Jimmie married Carrie Williamson, also a Meridian and a sister to Miss Elsie, who is our special guest tonight.

The following January, a daughter, Anita was born.

Jimmie's wife and daughter brought joy into the life marked by poverty and bad health.

In 1923, a streak of bad luck began with the death of Jimmie's second child, June, at the age of six months.

Jimmie was job hunting in New Orleans at the time and in order to get back to Meridian for the funeral he had to pawn his banjo.

Then in 1924, the doctors advised Jimmie that he had tuberculosis and later that year he almost died of a lung hemorrhage.

From this time forward Jimmie knew his days were numbered but he took it in stride because he wrote a song about his number one enemy, that old TB.

He entitled it "The TB Blues".

Okay, Van.

♪ My good gal's trying to make a fool out of me ♪ ♪ Lord, my gal's trying to make a fool out of me ♪ ♪ Trying to make me believe I ain't got that old T.B.

♪ ♪ I've got the T.B.

blues (audience applauding) - After this lung hemorrhage Jimmie knew that he couldn't railroad anymore, so he turned to what he loved most, music, to try to make a living for his family.

After heartaches and setbacks and ups and downs with that old TB he made connections with a trio in North Carolina and he dubbed the band The Jimmie Rodgers Entertainers.

However, they made just enough money to barely survive.

Finally, Jimmie's big break came in 1927 in the little town of Bristol, Tennessee.

Ralph Peer, a field engineer and talent scout for the Victor Talking Machine Company was holding auditions in a temporary recording studio.

And late one afternoon Jimmie Rodgers, less than 30 years of age, made his first test recording.

And one of the most important decisions in Jimmie's life was his selection of songs to use for that first audition.

His first choice was an old-time lullaby, "Sleep, Baby, Sleep".

Okay, Van.

♪ Sleep, Baby, sleepy ♪ Close your bright eyes ♪ Listen to your mother, dear ♪ Sing the lullaby ♪ Sleep, Baby, sleepy ♪ While angels watch over you ♪ Listen to your mother, dear ♪ While she sings to you (yodeling) (audience applauding) - After a while his records began to sell all over the country.

So Ralph Peer called on Jimmie for several new songs as soon as possible.

Jimmie didn't have the songs ready so in desperation he rushed off a while to Meridian, Mississippi, to his wife's sister, Mrs. Elsie McWilliams, to come and help him write some new songs.

And here tonight from Meridian to tell you all about it, very much alive and still as spry as a chicken, our very special guest, Mrs. Elsie McWilliams.

Won't you make her welcome.

- Thank you, Mr. Arnold.

Thank you.

(audience applauding) Well, when Jimmie called, contacted me about writing him some songs I told him I couldn't write a song.

He says, "I know you can.

"I've seen you write things for the church "and this, that, and the other."

So I wrote about three or four and sent them up there to him.

And the only one he could figure out, I guess, was "The Sailor's Plea".

That was the first one and because it was the most simple one.

And so he called me back and he says, "Elsie, you got to come up here and teach them to me "because I've got to hear you play them "to get the enthusiasm for them."

And so my mother took the children and I went up and we got some songs ready, went to New York.

Mr.

Peer wanted us to come to New York to record, or I'd assumed, and we went to New York to record the four songs.

But Mr.

Peer's mother got sick in Chicago and he had to leave and he told us to stay up there.

So we stayed about a week having a good time, but he finally told us to go back to Washington, DC, and to write four more songs if we could and be ready to record in Camden, New Jersey, before I could come back to Mississippi.

And I didn't think we could but we did because I had, we talked about daddy and home and little old home in New Orleans and a lot of things that we talked about going, while we drove up to New York.

So we went back and got the four songs ready.

And the day before we was to go to Camden the next morning we'd finished up everything.

My sister had a nice turkey dinner ready for us and she called us in.

Jimmie grabbed her with one arm and his old guitar he had in the other hand and he began dancing around the living room.

He says, "Kid, if I just keep you and my old guitar "I'm gonna reach the stars so just watch me climb."

Well, I flew back to the piano.

I never did eat that turkey dinner.

I went back to the piano and we got the old guitar ready.

So we recorded nine.

I say we recorded, he recorded nine.

I just went with him to keep him on the tune.

- Okay, let me ask you this, Mrs. Elsie.

Of all the songs that you wrote for Jimmie, and we know you wrote thirty something.

He recorded thirty something, rather, of what you wrote.

What would be your favorite?

What would you say was your favorite song?

- I can't say that I had a favorite.

If I didn't think they were all good I wouldn't have let him have them.

(audience laughing) I liked them all.

(audience applauding) But my sister, Carrie Cecil, I think preferred the "Home Call".

Jimmie told me to write a song about Carrie, Anita and me, because they were a very happy, close knit family.

And so I wrote two versions of the "Home Call" and he selected the one they call the "Home Call" and it must've been her specialty because she had it engraved on the back of his monument that stands in Harlem Park in Meridian, Mississippi.

And I'm very proud to have my name on the back of that monument.

- Would you do us the honor of doing "Home Call" for us?

- I'll try to do the best I can with it.

♪ At the close of the day ♪ When the sun sinks away ♪ Below that western sea ♪ Then I seek my rest ♪ In a little love nest ♪ Built for Carrie, Anita and me ♪ ♪ A big morris chair waits for me there ♪ ♪ In front of a bright log fire ♪ ♪ My babe at my knee and my wife sings with me ♪ ♪ While I strum on my old guitar ♪ ♪ In fact we're as happy as happy can be ♪ ♪ In the evening just Carrie, Anita and me ♪ ♪ Now, everything may go wrong as I toil all day long ♪ ♪ But when the shadows fall ♪ Then I seek my rest ♪ And the cares of the day slips softly away ♪ ♪ As I hear the old home call (audience applauds) ♪ For a big morris chair waits for me there ♪ ♪ In front of a bright log fire ♪ ♪ My babe at my knee and my wife sings with me ♪ ♪ While I strum on my old guitar ♪ ♪ In fact, we're as happy as happy can be ♪ ♪ In the evenings just Carrie, Anita and me ♪ (audience applauding) - Thank you so much, Ms. Elsie.

Ms. Elsie mentioned a song there that Jimmie, one of his first recordings that she wrote, "The Sailor's Plea".

And I'm gonna have Clayton now, Clayton Tyler here on "Sailor's Plea".

Just get rirght into it, Clayton.

Sing it, brother.

♪ My dear sweetheart, as I write to you ♪ ♪ My heart is filled with pain ♪ For if the things I hear are true ♪ ♪ I'll never see you again ♪ They tell me, darling that tonight ♪ ♪ You'll wed another man ♪ And if you do, I'll tell you true ♪ ♪ My boat will never land (yodeling) - When you get on your social security that yodel is hard to do.

(audience applauding) - Thank you, thank you very much.

Jimmie Rodgers was an original.

He was the first.

He didn't have anybody to copy and that's what makes his accomplishment so much greater.

His unorthodox guitar style may be heard on this next song, "Blue Yodel No.

8", better known as "Mule Skinner Blues".

Van, I hope you're ready.

- Yes sir, I hope so too.

(audience applauding) ♪ Good morning, Captain ♪ Good morning shine ♪ Do you need another mule skinner ♪ ♪ Out on your new mud line (yodeling) ♪ I like to work I'm rolling all the time ♪ ♪ I can carve my initials on a mule's behind ♪ (yodeling) ♪ Hey, little water boy bring that water round ♪ ♪ If you don't like your job set that water bucket down ♪ (yodeling) ♪ Working on the good road a dollar and a half a day ♪ ♪ My good gal waiting on Saturday night ♪ ♪ Just to draw my pay ♪ I'm going to town, honey ♪ What do you want me to bring you back ♪ ♪ Bring a pint of booze and a John B. Stetson hat ♪ ♪ Bring it to me, honey (yodeling) ♪ I smell your bread a-burning ♪ Turn your damper down ♪ If you ain't got a damper good gal ♪ ♪ Turn your bread around (yodeling) (audience applauding) - In May of 1933 Jimmie got in bad need of money.

So against the advice of his doctors he journeyed to New York City to record 24 songs.

His health was so bad that they had to set up a cot for him in Victor's studios.

Jimmie would cut a master and then he'd have to rest for several hours before he could cut another.

The old TB was wearing him down.

One of the last songs that he recorded was on May the 24th and the name of it was "Old Love Letters".

Are you ready, Van?

- I think so.

♪ Looking thru old love letters ♪ ♪ That once made me happy and gay ♪ ♪ But now my heart is breaking ♪ For the love of yesterday ♪ Reading those old love letters ♪ ♪ Recall to me memories ♪ Faded and gone from the picture ♪ ♪ Just like bygone melodies ♪ Though they're just old love letters ♪ ♪ Tied up in a string of blue ♪ The pages recall when you were my all ♪ ♪ Love letters bring memories of you ♪ (yodeling) - Two days later after recording this song, on May the 26th, 1933, Jimmie Rodgers lost his last battle to that old TB.

The last time Jimmie came home to his beloved south was on a funeral train.

And from the time the train entered his hometown of Meridian, Mississippi, until it came to a stop at the station the engineer paid Jimmie a great tribute with a continuous, long, low and lonesome sound from the train whistle.

There's a memorial in Meridian that best tells the Jimmie Rodgers Story.

His is the music of America.

He sang the songs of the people he loved of a young nation growing strong.

His was an America of glistening rails, thundering boxcars and rain-swept nights, of lonesome prairies, great mountains and a high blue sky.

He sang at the bayous and the cotton fields, the wheated planes of the little towns, the cities and of the winding rivers of America.

We listened, we understood Jimmie Rodgers, "The Singing Brakeman", "America's Blue Yodeler".

His music will live forever.

♪ Bring memories of you (yodeling) (audience applauding) In closing, may I say that Ms. Elsie, Van, Clayton and myself deeply appreciate having had this opportunity of bringing to you in our own way the Jimmie Rodgers Story.

And you have been a great audience and we are grateful for it.

Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen and good night.

(audience applauding) ♪ All around the water tank waiting for a train ♪ ♪ A thousand miles away from home sleeping in the rain ♪ ♪ I walked up to a brakeman to give him a line of talk ♪ ♪ He said "If you've got money I'll see that you don't walk ♪