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Critic's Review
Al Campbell, All Music Guide
Living Era's Jimmie Rodgers collection, Singing Brakeman highlights 50 original RCA recordings of the late '20s and early '30s, emphasizing the Singing Brakeman's multifaceted career with both solo and small band tracks. Spread out over two discs, this set combines cowboy and railroad tunes, all 13 "Blue Yodels" and three selections from his final session on May 24, 1933, two days before he died of tuberculosis: "Mississippi Delta Blues," "Somewhere Down Below the Mason Dixon Line," and "Years Ago (Fifteen Years Ago Today)." Historians may argue that a few fundamental songs were omitted -- "Away Out on the Mountain," "Daddy and Home," "Miss the Mississippi and You," -- even so, anyone with the slightest interest in the Blue Yodeler and the inception of country music will be more than satisfied with this release.
