Here’s a description of Lee Morse [via]:
“She was 5 feet tall. She was less than 100 lbs “soaking wet”. She spent her childhood in Oregon and Idaho yet was proud of her family’s Southern roots. She could hunt and fish and, if you deserved it, she could punch your lights out! She was Lee Morse, one of the most popular female recording artists during the Jazz Age 20’s and 30’s. And, she is worth remembering.” ~Ian House
Doc Watson, David “Dawg” Grisman and Jack Lawrence live in 1995. Lawrence was the late Watson’s accompianist for many years.
“My Blue Eyed Jane” was written by Lulu Belle White and Jimmie Rogers, first recorded by Jimmy Rogers with Bob Sawyer’s Jazz Band in 1930.
Jimmie Rogers (1897-1933) is considered the Father of Country Music for his long-lasting music influences, worked the railroad until he contracted tuberculosis in 1925. While fighting off the disease and unable to perform physical labor, he returned to his original love, writing and performing, until he succumbed at the age of 35.
Sadly, there was a vaccine to combat TB as early as 1921, but according to Wiki it wasn’t widely available in the U.S. or Europe until after WWII. Rogers also sang about his affliction in “TB Blues.”
Here’s Jimmie Rogers in the Columbia Pictures short “The Singing Brakeman” from 1930.
That’s it for this edition of The Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend, folks.
Tacky Raccoons 