It's Only Rock 'n' Roll

Veteran songwriter Steve Forbert has recorded a tribute to the legendary Jimmie Rodgers for Koch records, "Any Old Time," produced by Garry Tallent, the bassist with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.

The session, which will be released on Oct. 8, presents one of contemporary music's most distinctive vocalists interpreting a dozen tunes culled from the recording career of one of the primary architects of American roots music.

Dubbed the "Mississippi Blue Yodeler" and "The Singing Brakeman," Jimmie Rodgers became country music's first superstar between 1927 and his death in spring of 1933, but he was just as steeped in acoustic blues as he was in country.

Although ravaged (and finally killed) by tuberculosis, he exerted such overwhelming and enduring influence on the style, shape and substance of modern popular music in that brief span that when the Country Music Hall Of Fame opened in 1961, Rodgers was its inaugural inductee.

In 1986, his sweeping impact was further underscored when he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame as a Founding Father. This year marks the 75th anniversary of Rodgers' initial recording session with RCA Victor visionary Ralph Peer in Bristol, Tenn., part of the legendary Bristol sessions.

Forbert, like Rodgers, is from Meridian, Miss., so the usual interest a fledgling singer-songwriter would take in Rodgers' music was magnified by the fact that he grew up surrounded by both the spirit and tangible evidence of the roots music pioneer.

"I grew up with that in Meridian, and a cousin of his taught me guitar," said Forbert. "I've heard those records all my life, but for the longest time I wasn't that interested, 'cause, as a kid, I was more into the Jefferson Airplane and such. But I started to put the puzzle together when I was about 17 and began to hear people like Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard.

"And the next thing you know, I was listening to Merle's tribute ('Same Train, A Different Time'), and I started to realize that Jimmie Rodgers isn't a long way from 'Country Honk' by the Rolling Stones. So then it all took on a different, special place among my influences."

The 12 songs included on "Any Old Time" were carefully chosen by Forbert, who reviewed the complete catalog of over 110 Jimmie Rodgers recordings to find the songs most suitable to his own style.

"We went through all of them and did the homework, and then we picked about 20 to work with," said Forbert. "Some of them were just too outdated, and then you have those that apply to his tuberculosis -- which I didn't feel I had any right to sing about. And it wasn't just about picking which songs to do, but finding different 'colors' and deciding on some different approaches."

Forbert hand-picked the band for the project: keyboardist Bobby Ogdin, who played on Forbert's 1979 hit "Romeo's Tune"; drummer Bobby Lloyd Hicks; Charlie Chadwick on upright bass; Bill Hullett on a variety of string instruments; and Ken Lovelace on fiddle.

Add Forbert's own acoustic guitar and harmonica and you have a group sound that is able to do justice to the Rodgers classics. The timeless material is treated with respect, but roughly enough to make you know you're not listening to a museum piece. And you know you're listening to a rock 'n' roll band when Forbert leads them through the vibrant "My Rough And Rowdy Ways."

One of Forbert's crucial decisions in approaching the music was to sing it all in his own voice without trying to adopt Rodgers' tone or mannerisms. He even takes his own soulful crack at yodeling and harbors no illusions about his facility with Rodgers' trademark.

"Jimmie was so good at it," he states. "He truly had a great voice. For all of the varied material he did, he always got a grip on it. So I don't have any thoughts about being a yodeler like him; his was so clear and strong. But to get in the spirit of it, you gotta do it -- to leave off the yodeling would have been a lot worse than just taking a good-spirited stab at it. We really had fun making this record."

One listen to "Any Old Time" proves Forbert's point.