Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)

As a teenager, Rodgers sang on the traveling shows he organized with his father. During his adulthood, Rodgers began working for the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad as a brakeman.[6] Because of tuberculosis, he left the job in 1924. Rodgers then returned to performing, while moving around to different locations and working for other railroad companies.[6] In February 1927, he moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where he appeared on broadcasts of the recently established radio station WWNC. Rodgers selected a group from Bristol, Tennessee, as his backing band. The station featured them weekly under the name The Jimmie Rodgers Entertainers.[7]

Also in 1927, the Victor Talking Machine Company's producer Ralph Peer traveled to southern Appalachia to scout and record local talent, following the success of his recordings of Fiddlin' John Carson. Peer set up to record in Bristol, on the recommendation of Okeh Records engineer Ernest Stoneman.[8] Rodgers and his band heard of Peer's sessions and scheduled a recording. After a disagreement with the band's members regarding the name to use on the record's label the night before, Rodgers decided to record a solo record. On August 4, 1927, Peer recorded him from 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm. The session produced the tracks "Sleep, Baby, Sleep" and "The Soldier's Sweetheart". The resulting disk was released in October 1927.[9]

Publicity portrait used to promote Rodgers in 1927

Rodgers waited fruitlessly for Peer to call him again to have him record. He traveled to New York City and called Peer to let him know he was there and that he had time to record a few songs;[10] Peer set up an appointment for November 30, 1927.[11] The session took place at the Victor Talking Machine Company's Studio 1 in a repurposed building that had been the former Camden Trinity Baptist Church, favored for its acoustics.[12] The first few numbers Rodgers sang did not appeal to Peer because they were songs by other artists, as Peer intended to record material he could copyright. Rodgers then sang a new composition, which Peer named "Blue Yodel" because of Rodgers's use of yodeling during its breaks.[10]

The series of songs, later known as "Blue Yodels", often featured the story of a man who exaggerated his qualities as a lover, faced the threat of other men taking his woman, and then used violence against them when they did. Meanwhile, the character boasted of promiscuity with the use of double entendres.[13] Rodgers either developed the usage of yodeling in his act over the years,[14] or was inspired by Emmet Miller's recordings and live appearances.[15] Jimmie Rodgers's wife Carrie suggested that her husband chose not to record one of his Blue Yodels during the first session so as not to distract Peer from his vocal and guitar abilities.[16][17] Rodgers also had doubts about the reception the song's storyline would receive.[18] "Blue Yodel" was used to tell the story of Thelma, who leaves the narrator for another man.[19] While the narrator assures his love interest that he can replace her easily, he plans to seek vengeance on her and the lover. The narrator declares "I can get more women than a passenger train can haul",[20] and he says he is going to shoot Thelma "just to see her jump and fall". He adds that he is going to kill the man with a shotgun, and then leave the state of Georgia.[21]

The writing of "Blue Yodel" was credited to Rodgers.[22] Like other blues performers at the time, Rodgers composed his songs by mixing original lines with those of traditional and roadshow songs.[23] Jim Jackson first recorded the opening line, "T for Texas, T for Tennessee" on his song "Jim Jackson's Kansas City Blues", a month before the "Blue Yodel" recording session took place. Around the same time as Rodgers's recording, the line appeared in Lonnie Johnson's rendition of Jackson's song, and later in Frank Stokes's "Nehi Mamma Blues".[24] Bessie Smith's 1924 recording of the Spencer Williams-penned "Ticket Agent, Ease Your Window Down" features the line, "I can get more men than a passenger train can haul."

In Papa Charlie Jackson's 1925 ""The Faking Blues", the line is changed to, "I can get more women than a passenger train can haul." Meanwhile, a line similar to "shooting Thelma" appeared in Ma Rainey's 1924 "See See Rider Blues". Contemporary to Rodgers's recording, the line "just to see her fall" is echoed in Lonnie Johnson's "Low Land Moan".[25]

The tune for "Blue Yodel" follows the traditional blues AAB pattern, which consists of singing a line twice and closing with a third one.[23] The end of each stanza features a yodeling break, as its turnarounds emulate the conventional blues licks of the time.[26] "Blue Yodel" features a slowed down ragtime rhythm.[27] The syllables used for the yodel are the traditional yo-de-lay-ee, in a short-long-short form. Its modal frame features flatted seventh and third chords, characteristic of African American music and suggesting a "grinding, sexual movement".[28] Rodgers played the guitar in the style of a walking bass. He thumbed certain strings, while he brushed the high strings of the chords with his fingers.[29] "Blue Yodel" was recorded in two takes, with the second one picked as the master.[30] The session produced four songs.[31]

1928 advertisement promoting Rodgers as "America's Blue Yodeler"

Some time after the Studio 1 recording session, in a letter to his aunt, Rodgers complained about what he considered the late release for his second record, set for April 1928. But, as his debut record began to sell well, Peer and Victor decided to release a new recording earlier. They felt "Blue Yodel" was the strongest number from the second session and paired it with "Away Out in the Mountain".[32] The disk was issued under catalog number Victor 21142,[33] on February 3, 1928.[3] Upon its release, "Blue Yodel" enjoyed success.[34] Rodgers took a job with Washington, D.C., radio station WTTF, while continuing to make records with Victor.[35]

Throughout 1928, sales of "Blue Yodel" increased,[36] and Rodgers had his first hit song.[34] It spent 14 consecutive weeks atop the Victor sales list.[37] Though it was already present in cowboy songs, yodeling became Rodgers's trademark.[23] He became one of the most popular recording stars of the time,[38] and was known as "America's Blue Yodeler".[24] By September 1928, Rodgers's income in royalties from Victor ranged from U$75,000 (equivalent to $1,278,200 in 2022) to $100,000 (equivalent to $1,704,300 in 2022) yearly, mostly stemming from the sales of "Blue Yodel".[39] The song sold over a million copies and became Rodgers's career top seller.[40] He often performed it during live appearances,[41] garnering a good reception from audiences.[42] In 1930, Rodgers sang the song for his Columbia Pictures short film The Singing Brakeman.[43]

Peer subsequently analyzed the tunes Rodgers offered in the recording studio as his own "originals" more closely after the copyright holders of the tune of a later Rodgers release threatened to sue Victor and demanded royalties.[44] With the release of "Blue Yodel No. 2" in 1928, "Blue Yodel" was referred to in the Victor catalogs as "Blue Yodel No. 1".[45] In later years, the song became popularly known as "T for Texas",[34] and often stylized as "Blue Yodel No. 1 (T For Texas)" on record releases.[38] Riley Puckett recorded his own version of the song, which was released on Columbia Records in April 1928. Following its release, other artists started recording their renditions, that often imitated Rodgers's style to exploit his success.[46] Frankie Marvin recorded it along with "Out Away in the Mountain",[47] while Frankie Wallace released a version in June 1928.[48] Cliff Carlisle entitled his version, recorded in February 1930, "T for Texas".[49]

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