Blue Yodel
Encyclopedia
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 album sold more than a half million copies, a phenomenal number at the time.
, achieved a “vernacular combination of blues, jazz, and traditional folk” to produce a style of music then called ‘hillbilly’.
Rodgers’ Blue Yodel songs, as well as a number of his other songs of a similar pattern, drew heavily on fragmentary and ephemeral song phrases
from blues and folk traditions (called ‘floating lyrics’ or ‘maverick phrases’).
Jimmie Rodgers said he saw a troupe of Swiss yodelers doing a demonstration at a church. They were touring America, and he just happened to catch it, liked it, and incorporated it into his songs.
It has been suggested that Rodgers may have been influenced by the yodeling of Emmett Miller
, a blackface minstrel-show singer who recorded for Okeh Records
from 1924 to 1929. Singers such as Vernon Dalhart
, Riley Puckett
, and Gid Tanner
incorporated yodeling in recordings made in the mid-1920s; Rodgers recorded a version of Riley Puckett's “Sleep, Baby, Sleep" in August 1927.
Jimmie Rodgers’ distinctive yodel “had the steady ease of hobo song, and was simple enough to imitate”, unlike the sophisticated yodeling of other contemporary performers. Rodgers’ recording and performing successes in the late 1920s and early 1930s ensured that yodeling “became not only an obligatory stylistic flourish, but a commercial necessity”. By the 1930s yodeling was a widespread phenomenon and had become almost synonymous with country music.
released Same Train, A Different Time: Merle Haggard Sings The Great Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers, which included "Blue Yodel #6", "California Blues", and "Mule Skinner Blues". Tompall Glaser
recorded a version of "T For Texas" which was included on the 1976 compilation, Wanted! The Outlaws
, country music's first million-selling album. The band Lynyrd Skynyrd
also performed "T for Texas" on their 1976 live album
, One More From the Road
, in a rock and roll style with triple guitar
work from the band's three guitarists. Also Johnny Cash
has recorded a cover of "T for Texas", which can be heard on his posthumously issued box set Unearthed. Bill Monroe has covered three of the Blue Yodels, #3, #7 and #8 (Muleskinner Blues). Many other artists have gone on to copy Monroe's style of Blue Yodel #8 including Dolly Parton, the Stoneman Family and Rhonda Vincent. The Del McCoury band has also been know to play Blue Yodel #3 in Monroe's style.
Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)
James Charles Rodgers , known as Jimmie Rodgers, was an American country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling...
during the period from 1927 to his death in May 1933. The songs were based on the 12-bar blues
Twelve bar blues
The 12-bar blues is one of the most popular chord progressions in popular music, including the blues. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics and phrase and chord structure and duration...
format and featured Rodgers’ trademark yodel
Yodeling
Yodeling is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register to the falsetto/head register; making a high-low-high-low sound.The English word yodel is derived from a German word jodeln meaning "to...
refrains. The lyrics often had a risqué quality with “a macho, slightly dangerous undertone”. The original album sold more than a half million copies, a phenomenal number at the time.
A folk-blues hybrid
Jimmie Rodgers’ background in the blackface minstrel-shows and as a railroad worker enabled him to develop a unique musical hybridisation drawing from both black and white traditions, as exemplified by the Blue Yodel songs. In his recordings Rodgers and his record producer, Ralph PeerRalph Peer
Ralph Sylvester Peer was an American talent scout, recording engineer and record producer in the field of music in the 1920s and 1930s...
, achieved a “vernacular combination of blues, jazz, and traditional folk” to produce a style of music then called ‘hillbilly’.
Rodgers’ Blue Yodel songs, as well as a number of his other songs of a similar pattern, drew heavily on fragmentary and ephemeral song phrases
Traditional blues verses
In the folk tradition, there are many traditional blues verses that have been sung over and over by many artists. Blues singers, which includes many country and folk artists as well as those commonly identified with blues singers, use these traditional lyrics to fill out their blues performances...
from blues and folk traditions (called ‘floating lyrics’ or ‘maverick phrases’).
Jimmie Rodgers’ yodel
Jimmie Rodgers’ yodeling refrains, perhaps mimicking a mournful train whistle, are integral to the Blue Yodel songs. Rodgers’ loping and melancholy vocal ornamentations have been described as “that famous blue yodel that defies the rational and conjecturing mind”. Rodgers himself apparently viewed his yodeling as little more than a vocal flourish; he described them as “curlicues I can make with my throat.”Jimmie Rodgers said he saw a troupe of Swiss yodelers doing a demonstration at a church. They were touring America, and he just happened to catch it, liked it, and incorporated it into his songs.
It has been suggested that Rodgers may have been influenced by the yodeling of Emmett Miller
Emmett Miller
Emmett Miller was an American minstrel show performer and recording artist known for his falsetto, yodel-like voice. Little-remembered today, Miller was a major influence on many country music singers, including Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Milton Brown, Tommy Duncan, and Merle Haggard...
, a blackface minstrel-show singer who recorded for Okeh Records
Okeh Records
Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...
from 1924 to 1929. Singers such as Vernon Dalhart
Vernon Dalhart
Vernon Dalhart , born Marion Try Slaughter, was a popular American singer and songwriter of the early decades of the 20th century. He is a major influence in the field of country music.-Early life:...
, Riley Puckett
Riley Puckett
George Riley Puckett was an American country music pioneer mostly known for being a member of Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers.-Biography:...
, and Gid Tanner
Gid Tanner
James Gideon Tanner was an American old time fiddler and one of the earliest stars of what would come to be known as country music. His band, the Skillet Lickers, was one of the most innovative and influential string bands of the 1920s and 1930s...
incorporated yodeling in recordings made in the mid-1920s; Rodgers recorded a version of Riley Puckett's “Sleep, Baby, Sleep" in August 1927.
Jimmie Rodgers’ distinctive yodel “had the steady ease of hobo song, and was simple enough to imitate”, unlike the sophisticated yodeling of other contemporary performers. Rodgers’ recording and performing successes in the late 1920s and early 1930s ensured that yodeling “became not only an obligatory stylistic flourish, but a commercial necessity”. By the 1930s yodeling was a widespread phenomenon and had become almost synonymous with country music.
The first Blue Yodel (T for Texas)
Jimmie Rodgers’s first Blue Yodel, which became known as “Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas) ”, was recorded on 30 November 1927 in the Trinity Baptist Church at Camden, New Jersey. When the song was released in February 1928 it became “a national phenomenon and generated an excitement and record-buying frenzy that no-one could have predicted”.Blue Yodel song details
- "Blue Yodel” [aka “Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)”], recorded on 30 November 1927 at Camden, New Jersey; released on 3 February 1928 (BVE 40753-2).
- “Blue Yodel No. 2 (My Lovin’ Gal, Lucille) ”, recorded on 15 February 1928 at Camden, New Jersey; released on 4 May 1928 (BVE 41741-2).
- “Blue Yodel No. 3 (Evening Sun Yodel) ”, recorded on 15 February 1928 at Camden, New Jersey; released on 7 September 1928 (BVE 41743-2).
- “Blue Yodel No. 4 (California Blues) ”, recorded on 20 October 1928 at Atlanta, Georgia; released on 8 February 1929 (BVE 47216-4).
- “Blue Yodel No. 5 (It’s Raining Here) ”, recorded on 23 February 1929 at New York, New York; released on 20 September 1929 (BVE 49990-2).
- “Blue Yodel No. 6 (She Left Me This Mornin’) ”, recorded on 22 October 1929 at Dallas, Texas; released on 21 February 1930 (BVE 56453-3).
- “Anniversary Blue Yodel (Blue Yodel No. 7) ”, recorded on 26 November 1929 at Atlanta, Georgia; released on 5 September 1930 (BVE 56607-3) - Jimmie Rodgers and Elsie McWilliams (Rodgers' sister-in-law).
- “Blue Yodel No. 8 (Mule Skinner Blues)Mule Skinner Blues"Mule Skinner Blues" is a classic country song written by Jimmie Rodgers; "George Vaughn" is sometimes listed as co-author; the name is a pseudonym for Vaughn Horton, who wrote Bill Monroe's "New Mule Skinner Blues" the second version recorded by Monroe.The song was first recorded by Rodgers in...
”, recorded on 11 July 1930 at Hollywood Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California; released on 6 February 1931 (PBVE 54863-3). - “Blue Yodel No. 9 (Standin’ On the Corner)Standing on the Corner (Blue Yodel No. 9)"Blue Yodel #9" is a blues/country song by Jimmie Rodgers which included an unbilled Louis Armstrong on trumpet. The song is set in Memphis at the corner of Beale Street and Main Street, a block from the current location of B.B. King's Blues Club.First recorded on July 16, 1930, it was the ninth...
”, recorded on 16 July 1930 at Hollywood Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California (with Louis Armstrong, cornet, and Lil Armstrong, piano); released on 11 September 1931 (PBVE 54867-3). - “Blue Yodel No. 10 (Ground Hog Rootin’ in My Backyard) ”, recorded February 6, 1932, at Dallas, Texas; released on 12 August 1932 (BVE 70650-2).
- “Blue Yodel No.11 (I’ve Got a Gal) ”, recorded on 27 November 1929 at Atlanta, Georgia; released on 30 June 1933 (BVE 56617-4), after Jimmie Rodgers had died.
- “Blue Yodel No. 12 (Barefoot Blues) ”, recorded on 17 May 1933 at New York, New York; released on 27 June 1933 (BS 76138-1), a month after Jimmie Rodgers’ death.
- “Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel (The Women Make a Fool Out of Me) ”, recorded on 18 May 1933 at New York, New York; released on 20 December 1933 (BS 76160-1), seven months after Jimmie Rodgers had died.
Covers
In 1969, country singer Merle HaggardMerle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
released Same Train, A Different Time: Merle Haggard Sings The Great Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers, which included "Blue Yodel #6", "California Blues", and "Mule Skinner Blues". Tompall Glaser
Tompall Glaser
Tompall Glaser is an American country music artist. Active since the 1950s, he has recorded both as a solo artist and with his brothers Chuck and Jim in the trio Tompall & the Glaser Brothers...
recorded a version of "T For Texas" which was included on the 1976 compilation, Wanted! The Outlaws
Wanted! The Outlaws
Wanted! The Outlaws is an album by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser, released in RCA Victor in 1976, and consisting of previously released material. Released to capitalize on the new outlaw country movement, Wanted! The Outlaws earned its place in music history by...
, country music's first million-selling album. The band Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band prominent in spreading Southern Rock during the 1970s.Originally formed as the "Noble Five" in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964, the band rose to worldwide recognition on the basis of its driving live performances and signature tune, Freebird...
also performed "T for Texas" on their 1976 live album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, One More From the Road
One More from the Road
One More From the Road is a live album by Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. It marked the band's first live album, and the only live album from the so-called "classic" era of the band prior to the plane crash that killed lead singer/songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, as well as band members Steve...
, in a rock and roll style with triple guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
work from the band's three guitarists. Also Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
has recorded a cover of "T for Texas", which can be heard on his posthumously issued box set Unearthed. Bill Monroe has covered three of the Blue Yodels, #3, #7 and #8 (Muleskinner Blues). Many other artists have gone on to copy Monroe's style of Blue Yodel #8 including Dolly Parton, the Stoneman Family and Rhonda Vincent. The Del McCoury band has also been know to play Blue Yodel #3 in Monroe's style.