Before he was a singing cowboy, Gene Autry was a Jimmie Rodgers imitator, and a good one. His earliest recordings include several titles from the Rodgers canon, as well as new songs in Rodgers’ style, delivered in a vocal style remarkably similar to the Singing Brakeman’s.

Autry was a national radio star before he transitioned to films, performing on the WLS National Barn Dance in Chicago from 1930-1935.

This track was recorded in New York in October, 1931, and issued on a slew of cut-price labels: Banner, Oriole, Conqueror (one of the Sears house labels), Melotone, Perfect, Romeo, and Panachord. The tenor banjo accompaniment is by Roy Smeck, one of the most versatile instrumentalists of his era.

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Courtesy of Archive.org