Jimmie Rodgers deserves credit for innovating the role of a touring, band-leading solo star. Born on Sept. His fiddling skills, plus an innate ability to balance his fiddle and its bow on his chin, made the youngster an asset for his huckster boss. The company kept the Acuff family wealthy while setting part of the Music Row business blueprint for decades to come. In , Tennessee Gov. Prentice Cooper 's public dismissal of country music inspired Acuff to run the following year in both the Democratic and Republican primaries as a protest candidate. He failed to secure either nomination, but in , Acuff won the Republican primary. Despite the Opry star's celebrity status, however, opponent Gordon Browning won with 67 percent of the vote. Acuff helped secure the Dirt Band a much warmer Music City welcome than that received by the Byrds in

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"Old Time Sunshine Song"
Roy Acuff. Known as The King of Country Music, he sold more than 30 million records in a career that lasted more than fifty years. A one-time promising baseball player, he turned to singing in the early s, and with his sincere, mountain-boy vocal style and Dobro-flavoured band sound replaced Uncle Dave Macon as the most popular Opry performer of the s. Something of a music visionary, in the early s, together with songwriter Fred Rose, he set up Acuff-Rose, a music publishing company that was destined to become one of the most important in country music. He was also something of a political animal and was nominated to run as governor of Tennessee in and Two years later he won the Republican primary, but failed to win the ensuing election. Nevertheless, he did gain tremendous support, earning a larger slice of the vote than any previous Republican candidate.
King of Country Music. He was born to father, Neil Acuff, who worked as a lawyer, postmaster, and pastor, and mother, Ida Carr, who worked as a homemaker. As a child he played the mouth harp, the harmonica, and sang in a local choir.