Jesse Rodgers

Being the cousin of an American folk music icon would no doubt make it difficult, not easier, to establish one's own identity as a performer. What if there was so little information available about an obscure performer that the family connection was impossible to completely confirm? One thing is for sure -- the early recordings of Jesse Rodgers sound a whole lot like those of the famous Jimmie Rodgers, complete with blue yodel, similar sort of song topic, and carbon-copy guitar picking and vocal phrasing. In fact, the same old-timey music researchers who decided to find out who Jesse Rodgers actually was seemed to have agreed on one thing -- there were legions of Jimmie Rodgers imitators, but Jesse did it about the best, cousin or not. A 1950 edition of Country Song Roundup featured an interview with Jesse Rodgers in which he mentioned that his mother had raised Jimmie as well. However, there are those who feel this particular magazine should be kept on the fiction shelf at the library. One of the presidents of the Jimmie Rodgers Society was quoted describing Jessie as "a likeable fella, but a liar," although the Society's official position seems to be that the men were cousins "of a sort," which, in the manner of the old joke about jazz, might be close enough for folk music. Writer Mike Paris researched Jesse for the British Old Time Music magazine, and in the process absolutely confirmed the family relationship via Jimmie's daughter, Anita Rodgers Court. Jimmie Rodgers had been a frequent visitor in Jesse's home; both families worked in the railroad. Jesse's ability to play so closely in the Rodgers style had, in the end, an easy explanation: Jimmie had actually taught him to play guitar. Jesse's mother died when he was 12, and he was relocated to southwest Texas to...