Various artists
The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers–A Tribute (Egyptian/Columbia) (star) (star) (star)
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Bob Dylan, who organized this entertaining tribute to “The Singing Brakeman,” calls Rodgers “the man who started it all.” By “all,” one assumes Dylan means a distinctly American form of popular music that spans everything from country blues and ragtime to rock ‘n’ roll. With the possible exception of Louis Armstrong, Rodgers has influenced more musicians than any other this century. Listening to the songs here, it’s easy to visualize a straight line that begins in Mississippi and connects Rodgers to the Carter Family, Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and Dylan. The 14 renditions on this tribute effectively capture the spirit of the man’s music, which celebrated railroads, the men who rode them, the land on which they traveled and the lovers left behind. The contributors include Bono, Alison Krauss, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Iris DeMent, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam, all of whom give pleasantly reverential readings of timeless classics. Credit John Mellencamp (“Gambling Bar Room Blues”), Van Morrison (“Mule Skinner Blues”) and Aaron Neville (“Why Should I Be Lonely”), though, with stretching the material and proving that 70-year-old songs can sound as fresh as anything on today’s Top 40 — even when they rhyme “gal” and “pal.” Also a must: Haggard’s great 1969 tribute to Rodgers, “Same Train — A Different Train,” recently re-released on Koch.