Rodgers’ recordings sold over 12 million copies during his lifetime, making him one of the most commercially successful ...

Like many country artists in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Gene Autry started out as an imitator of Jimmie Rodgers ... This set off the “singing cowboy” craze and spawned many imitators ...

Country singer Jimmie Rodgers and bluegrass musicians the Carter Family circa 1930 in Poor Valley, Virginia. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) In Bristol, Virginia, there is a living monument ...