T.B. Blues

Album: The Essential Jimmie Rodgers (1931)
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Songfacts®:

  • The unedifying title of this song is compounded by its inspiration. Singing Brakeman Jimmie Rodgers was born in the Deep South on September 8, 1897, and as a young man worked on the railroad. In 1924, he contracted tuberculosis, one of the great scourges of history. It was this that led to his star rising; forced to give up his job he formed a band, and three years later received his big break when he was recorded by Ralph Peer of the Victor Talking Machine Company. Alas, his career was short-lived, because he died on May 26, 1933 as a result of his illness.

    At 35 he was a year younger than another famous TB sufferer from the Deep South, Doc Holliday. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England

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