In 1933, the US country music pioneer Jimmie Rodgers died of tuberculosis. Just 35 years old and at the peak of his career, his demise left a legacy of a life and career unfinished. This instalment from the US animator Drew Christie’s Drawn & Recorded series, which tells little-known stories from the annals of modern music history, recounts the improbable story of how, in death, Rodgers would go on to inspire not just luminaries of American music, but also the Kipsigis peoples of the Rift Valley in Kenya – whose folk music found its way back to the US decades later.
How an American country music pioneer entered African mythology
Director: Drew Christie
Writers: Drew Christie, Bill Flanagan
Narrator: T Bone Burnett
Producers: T Bone Burnett, Bill Flanagan, Van Toffler
Website: Gunpowder & Sky

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