Search - Lefty Frizzell :: Sings The Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers

When Lefty Frizzell's rough and rowdy ways landed him in the jailhouse, he was inspired to compose not a rambling blues but "I Love You a Thousand Ways," one of country music's sweetest love songs. It makes sense, then, that when Frizzell later recorded this Jimmie Rodgers tribute, he would largely bypass the Singing Brakeman's well-known rowdy side to focus on songs of love lost and found. Granted, Songs of Jimmie Rodgers includes ramblin' classics like "California Blues" and, of course, "My Rough and Rowdy Ways." More often, though, Frizzell chooses to drop his fragile flurries of notes into songs with a softer touch: "My Old Pal," "Treasure Untold," "Lullaby Yodel." On the concluding "Sleep Baby Sleep," he trills through a yodel more sweet than blue, and so even though a harmonica chugs behind him like a slow train coming, you can tell what he really wants is just to stay right here, cradling the child in his arms. --David Cantwell