Mississippi Roads eases over to Lauderdale County to the town of Meridian. We put our stakes down at the shrine of the “Father of Country Music”, we are at the Jimmie Rodgers Museum. http://www.jimmierodgers.com/
Born on September 8, 1897 in Meridian James Charles Rodgers, better known as Jimmie, was the youngest of three sons. His mother died when Jimmie was very young and he spent the next few years living with relatives until he finally returned to Meridian to stay with his father.
Jimmie's affinity for entertaining came at an early age, and the lure of the road was irresistible to him. By age 13, he had twice organized and begun traveling shows, only to be brought home by his father. Mr. Rodgers found Jimmie his first job working on the railroad as a waterboy. Here he was further taught to pick and strum his guitar by rail workers and hobos. A few years later, he became a brakeman on the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad line running between Meridian and New Orleans.
These early experiences would come to define the two loves of Jimmie’s life; that of music and the railroad.
The museum contains some of Jimmie’s clothing and artifacts, original furnishings, old photographs plus hand-written letters.
Rodgers was known by many names, “The Singing Brakeman”, “America’s Blue Yodeler” and “The Father of Country Music” but he was truly the man who started the world-wide popularity of a distinctly American musical form.
In our first story, we introduce you to another Meridian resident who has made quite a name for himself through his chosen medium of work.
Greg Cartmell lived his early life in New England but when he was asked to help open a fine art gallery in Meridian he fell in love with the south and all that it had to offer. A professional artist for over 35 years, Greg Cartmell is nationally recognized as one of the country’s foremost landscape painters. Cartmell’s works are in private and corporate collections throughout the world and he is the recipient of over 300 awards.
A new endeavor of Greg’s is a presentation entitled, “The Fine Art of Success”, which he presents to various groups across the nation. His messages of inspiration have fired up people all over the country to go for their dreams. Greg’s presentations are packed with personal stories, motivation, and real life steps for success to overcome their fears and create a work of art in their own life.
http://tfaos.com/Home.html
The locomotive outside the Jimmie Rodgers Museum is a large reminder of the railroads influence on the singing brakeman’s life. This particular engine was purchased in 1953 by the people of Meridian and was placed in a roadside park to honor Jimmie and the railroad men of the region.
Another interesting artifact here at the museum on a little smaller scale is a calling card for hobos that Jimmie passed out as a get out of jail free card in Meridian
And speaking of artifacts, hundreds of 18th century figures and artifacts of the holy family during the birth of the Christ child comprise the Bethlehem Tree Exhibit; which is quickly becoming a new holiday tradition at the Mississippi Museum of Art.
The story of how the Bethlehem Tree Exhibit, a seasonal nativity display, came to the Mississippi Museum of Art, in Jackson. This large exhibit, depicting what life in Naples, Italy would have been like if Christ had been born in the 18th century, is located just inside the main entrance of the museum and open to the public. The exhibit’s curator and museum staff talk of the significance of the exhibit to the people of Mississippi.
…back story: On a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Jewel Graeber, of Oxford, Mississippi, was fascinated by an Angel Tree nativity exhibit she saw with her husband. After seeing the look on the children’s faces who toured the display, she decided that the children of Mississippi needed a similar exhibit and set out to make a display of her own. Several years later the exhibit was completed. Her daughter, Gay Graeber, became the curator of the exhibit and set out to find it a home. She offered it to the Mississippi Museum of Art who welcomed it into their collections.
This concept of a nativity scene, or crèche, is credited to St. Francis of Assisi in order to depict the birth of Christ to those would could not read or write. This practice was started in Naples, Italy in the 18th century and quickly spread across Europe among the wealthy nobility.
The most prized possession of the museum; which is kept in a safe covered in glass, is Jimmie’s 1927 custom ordered Martin guitar with his name in pearl inlay on the neck and “Thanks” written upside down on the back; which he became famous for flashing to show his gratitude to the audience. On Jimmie’s 100th birthday Martin Guitars created 100 hand-crafted limited edition Jimmie Rodgers guitars and the #1 guitar was presented to the museum in Meridian.
And speaking of guitars, in our next story we travel over to Sciple’s Mill for a little picking and strumming.
Every Saturday night the sounds of water running through the gates of the mill pond at Sciple’s grist mill in Kemper County is mingled with country music drifting out across the hollow from the Water Mill Opry. Friends and neighbors have been gathering for years to play music, eat and dance. We drop in and sit a spell in this next segment.
The inscription on Jimmie Rodgers statue reads like this,
“His is the music of America. He sang the songs of the people he loved, of a young nation growing strong. His was an America of glistening rails, thundering boxcars, and rain-swept nights, of lonesome prairies, great mountains and a high blue sky. He sang of the bayous and the cornfields, the wheated plains, of the little towns, the cities, and of the winding rivers of America.”
Rodgers evolved a lasting musical style which made him immensely popular in his own time and a major influence on generations of artists. Gene Autry, Ernest Tubb, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and George Harrison of the Beatles are only a few of the hundreds of stars who have acknowledged the impact of Jimmie Rodgers’s music on their careers.
In our next story, we trace some of the Mississippi musicians who are intertwined with the music of Jimmie Rodgers.
The Deep South was the perfect place geographically for a synthesis of musical styles from several places on the globe, to merge into a truly American art form.
The first was Blues, born from the economics and way of life after the Civil War. There were blues musicians from El Paso to Savanna. But for every one elsewhere, there were 10 in Mississippi. And most of them were in the Delta.
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Dockery Plantation is said to be THE place where the blues was born. Charlie Patten worked at Dockery in the early 1900s and was an influence on the next generation of bluesmen, including Robert Johnson, who influenced folks like Muddy Waters, and Muddy Waters influenced folks like the Beatles and Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones even took their name from a Muddy Waters song.
Mississippi is where music from the hills, in particular the Appalachians, drifted. Jimmie Rodgers of Meridian, adapted the blues themes and rhythms he learned from co-workers on the railroad, to the string band instrumentation that migrated with the settlers from the Carolinas and the mountains, and the synthesis is what became country music.
And then a few more Mississippians, including Elvis Presley from Tupelo, put a little more beat into country and invented Rock and Roll. Ike Turner from Clarksdale is credited with writing what many say is the first rock and roll song, Rocket 88. It was written about a model of Oldsmobile, probably seen while he and his band were on a trip to Memphis to record some songs.
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