Jimmy Rodgers. The Singing Brakeman. Even through the woolly recording, you can hear it’s a Martin Guitar he’s playing. Nothing sounds like that. A jangly wooden cannon. You can play one just like it if you like.

Don’t forget to flip it over when you’re done and collect your laughs along with your applause:

A man, dead at thirty-five, had enough time to invent country music first. The rest of us mostly mill around for twice that. The world is an uncompromising place in this regard. Some people perform calculus; the rest just arithmetic, I guess.

Jimmie Rodgers.