He was known as the “Father Of Country Music” and “The Singing’ Brakeman” because he worked the railroads and was a brakeman for New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad. He was also famous for his yodeling.
According to historians, on April 18, 1927, he and a man named Otis Kuykandall performed on WWNC, Asheville, NC’s first radio station. A few weeks later, he recruited a group from Bristol, Tennessee named the Tenneva Ramblers and secured a weekly slot on WWNC listed as “The Jimmie Rodgers Entertainers.”