Blue yodeling
In addition to Rodgers, the later "Singing Cowboy" Gene Autry and the Honky Tonk Musicians Ernest Tubb and Hank Snow were outstanding representatives of the genre.
However, it became popular in large cities such as Vienna from around 1830 as an entertainment interlude in the Viennese suburban theaters and Singspielhalles and was only subsequently brought to the countryside by guest artists.
The first encounter with Anglo-American musical styles is said to have taken place in the early 19th century, when British and Irish settlers met German-speaking immigrants in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
[7] This influence is said to lie, among other things, in typical inarticulate calls with simultaneous breaking of the voice, the field hollers, from which the so-called "black falsetto" has developed.
However, yodeling is only hinted at in both recordings.Well-known interpreters of this newly developing style were the white vaudeville artist George P. Watson and his colleague Emmett Miller.
In this context, some authors have raised the fundamental question of the motives that prompted white musicians to take up elements of African-American music in the first place, especially in the racist climate that prevailed in the southern states at the beginning of the 20th century.
After Rodgers had to give up his job on the railroad due to his tuberculosis illness, he fulfilled his dream of a career as a musician, played in string bands, toured the southern states with vaudeville shows and also performed as a blackface artist.
During this time, he came to the attention of producer Ralph Peer, who was looking for music in the traditional mountain or old-time style and organized test recordings in Bristol, Tennessee.
[25] In summary, it can be said that Jimmie Rodgers combined the blues songs of the black railroad workers, the Swiss yodels and the syncopation of the "pop" music of the 1920s in his style.
Autry had previously tried unsuccessfully to gain a foothold as a crooner during an extended stay in New York City Victor Talking Machine Company Gene Austin and Al Jolson songs.
However, it had the advantage of being released by Columbia's budget labels Velvet Tone, Diva and Harmony, so for the price of one Rodgers record (Victor), his fans could buy three of Autry's, so-called "dime store platters".
His Seven Years with the Wrong Woman from 1932, for example, was one of the first country songs to deal with the subject of divorce, while Pay Day Fight from 1937 describes a married couple's physical dispute over money on payday.
After various stops, Britt had his first major success as a solo artist in June 1934 with Chime Bells, accompanied on piano by Bob Miller, who had composed the song.
Thematizing mountain lakes and the ringing of bells and stylistically kept in 6/8 time, it has nothing to do with blues or even country, but creates a "peculiar European feeling".
At the same time, however, Britt managed not to let the yodeling "hang in the air" or conflict with the content of the song, just like Rodgers, who had rejected the alpine style for this reason.
However, Britt had his greatest success as a singer of sentimental pop ballads after his final breakthrough in 1942 with the patriotic title There's a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere.
A long friendship developed from this encounter, and through Carrie, Tubb came into contact with her sister Elsie McWilliams, who had written songs for Jimmie Rodgers.
His mother, who had encouraged him to sing in the church choir as a child, gave him a Victrola, a portable phonograph to wind up, and some records by Vernon Dalhart, in which he was particularly fascinated by the guitar playing.
Over time, he was able to build up a growing fan base in north-eastern Canada and in October 1936 he made his first recordings for the Canadian RCA subsidiary Bluebird, including the self-composed Lonesome Blue Yodel.
[57] Although Williams bought the rights to the modified song from Rex Griffin, he had previously heard Miller's version, although it is unclear whether this was in person or on a record.
Blue yodeling came to the attention of a wider public again in 2000, when a remake of Jimmie Rodgers' In the Jailhouse Now was released on the soundtrack to the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Artists such as Don Walser, Ed Burleson or Jason Eklund, who died in 2006, also used yodeling to clearly oppose the pop development in Nashville-style country music.
[19] Indeed, Rodgers must have had a special feel for this style, which, according to Cliff Carlisle, was also reflected in his whole manner: "Jimmie, he reminded me more of a colored person, or a negro ... than anybody I ever saw, in a way.
[64] Conversely, Rodgers' music was also appreciated and used as inspiration by African Americans, who, according to an assessment expressed in the literature, may have made him at least in part an "honorary negro".
[67] The "rounder" often appears, boasting about his abilities as a lover, but at the same time is deeply insecure and constantly fears the "creeper" who wants to steal his partner.
Although the treatment of the themes mentioned contributed to the great emotionality of the music, it was the sometimes tortured yodel refrains that created an atmosphere of loneliness and despair.
[69] For the many young men who emulated Rodgers, blue yodeling is said to have been a means of releasing pent-up sexual desire and aggression, a procedure that is said to have a cathartic effect.
"[70][71] (The latter is an allusion to Walt Whitman's poem Song of Myself, where the last stanza states: "I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable/I sound my barbaric yawps over the roofs of the world."
In keeping with a common practice at the time, "dirty" themes were often alluded to with allusions from the animal kingdom, such as in Shanghai Rooster Yodel (1931) or Tom Cat Blues (1932).
Over time, the range of topics covered increased and reached as far as novelty songs such as Married Man Blues (1937) by Ernest Tubb or Yodeling Mule (1939) by the Three Tobacco Tags.
