Jimmie Rodgers Book

Arguably the definitive biography of Rodgers - the first American country music artist to gain extensive exposure outside the South - the book is also an interesting history of the early U.S. music industry.

“The Father of Country Music,” as Rodgers is now called, got started in the music business by, somewhat reluctantly, making his music more “country,” or in the terms used by the music labels of his day, “old-timey.” The idea of Ralph Peer, the Victor Records executive who famously signed Rodgers and The Carter Family during the same historic 1927 week in Bristol, Virginia, was to create music products distinct from the “jazz” (Tin Pan Alley pop tunes) that had saturated the music market of the time for several years, but was no longer selling well. Rodgers, who preferred “jazz” himself but also knew something about older music forms, crafted most of his body of work to fit the “hillbilly” model Peer developed. The way all of this came together is a good story, well-written by Porterfield, and worth a read for anyone interested in the history of the American roots music.