My Husband Jimmie Rodgers
They called him the “Singing Brakeman”—and some even said he was the “Father of Country Music,” a title that could be disputed. Jimmie Rodgers was an early star in the characteristic American music that took recognizable shape in the 1920s and ‘30s.
Nolan Porterfield’s introduction to this long out-of-print memoir by the Brakeman’s wife, Carrie Rodgers nee Williamson, casts a skeptical eye on her factuality while acknowledging it as “the unique expression of a unique woman, and its vagaries as well as its virtues derive from the unusual circumstances of the author’s life.” My Husband, originally published in 1935 (two years after the singer’s death), runs with the legend but the legends can reveal truth.
Carrie was drawn to Jimmie for the high spirits and carefree recklessness that were audible in his recordings. “We had our ups and downs,” she writes, stoically. Clearly, behind the footloose singer of “In the Jailhouse Now” was a focused woman who organized his career and kept the Singing Brakeman from going off track.
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