Jimmy Day Benefit March 28th in Nashville
According to postings on the Steel Guitar Forum, there will be a benefit concert to help try to pay off some of the hospital bills the late Jimmy Day accumulated during his battle with cancer. It will be held at the Nashville Nitelife nightclub on Music Valley drive, starting at 2:00 on March 28th. Buddy Emmons will be featured on steel guitar, Tommy Alsup and Pete Wade on guitars, Willie Rainsford on piano, Hoot Hester on fiddle, etc. Jimmy Dickens, Lee Ann Womack, Wade Hayes, Toby Keith, Jeannie Sealy, Craig Dillingham, Bill Russell, and others have agreed to perform, according to this post. For more information, visit the Steel Guitar Forum (http://www.b0b.com/forum) or write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Jimmy Day
Chad wrote: Hey folks, Sorry for not paying attention, but would someone mind clueing me in on the circumstances surrounding Jimmy Day's death. I've been in nothing but browse mode lately, so any info would be much appreciated. Chad, smilin', even more than Jim, Smilin' Jim that is... not Day. np Steve The McCourys (write me offlist and I'll tell you how much I really think it stinks! g) advanced stomach cancer. Took everybody by suprise. Sonofabitch just up and died on us. -- Joe Gracey President-For-Life, Jackalope Records http://www.kimmierhodes.com
Re: Jimmy Day
A little behind the 8-ball being in digest mode, but that was beautiful Joe.
Re: Jimmy Day
"Ferguson, Dan" wrote: A little behind the 8-ball being in digest mode, but that was beautiful Joe. Muchas muchisimas gracias, amigo. -- Joe Gracey President-For-Life, Jackalope Records http://www.kimmierhodes.com
Jimmy Day
from this week's Austin Chronicle JIMMY DAY, 1934-1999 If the death of Austin blues guitarist T.D. Bell on January 9 was a hard blow for the Central Texas music scene, the loss of steel guitar player Jimmy Day must be measured in even larger terms -- its impact resonates on a national, even worldwide scale. Buda resident Day died of cancer Friday, January 22 at the age of 65. There are a select few musicians whose talent is so highly regarded that their names literally become synonymous with their instrument -- Jimi Hendrix on the guitar, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker on the saxophone, Miles Davis on the trumpet. In the world of steel guitar, those names were Buddy Emmons and Jimmy Day. Of course, Jimmy Day never received the fame of those other names -- he was primarily a sideman, rather than a band leader -- but like all sidemen, he helped make the sounds that made the stars famous. Day's résumé alone is mind-boggling; name a country music hall of famer from the Fifties or Sixties, any one, and chances are, he played with them. And there's a reason he hooked up with so many great musicians -- they sought him out. But Day also played with some smaller names as well, which must be seen as a measure of their talent. When you're the guy who laid down the opening licks of Ray Price's "Crazy Arms," you don't have to play with also-rans. Clay Blaker, Alvin Crow, and Don Walser are among the Central Texas regional talents who received the Jimmy Day stamp of approval and benefited from his talents. Day was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on January 9, 1934, and grew up in Louisiana. He heard Shot Jackson playing the steel guitar in 1948 and fell in love with the instrument, developing a friendship with Jackson (Day, Jackson, and Emmons together manufactured their own brand of pedal steel, the Sho-Bud, beginning in 1957). He quickly mastered the instrument and was soon among heady company; the same year he graduated from high school, 1951, Day auditioned for The Louisiana Hayride, the Shreveport radio show which at the time rivaled the Grand Ole Opry in importance, and backed Webb Pierce and Red Sovine. That same year, he recorded with Pierce on "Don't Do It Darlin'," which went to number one. From there, there are just too many highlights to mention. Day moved among the upper echelons of country royalty until the late Seventies, when Nashville began its attempts to destroy country music, often dropping the steel guitar from recordings altogether. Day returned to Central Texas in 1978 and sought out audiences who still appreciated true country. Among his gigs were the now-legendary Monday nights with Don Walser's Pure Texas Band at Henry's Bar Grill. He moved to Nashville in 1991 for some session work when Nashville rediscovered the steel, but then settled down in Buda again shortly thereafter. As said, the best way to understand the impact of Jimmy Day is to look at his résumé, so here it is (no, we're not making this up): Webb Pierce, Red Sovine, Hank Williams, Jim Reeves, Lefty Frizzell, Elvis Presley, Ray Price, Ernest Tubb, Willie Nelson, Johnny Bush, Ferlin Husky, George Jones, Tracy Nelson Mother Earth, Sammi Smith, Leon Russell, Commander Cody, Clay Blaker, Alvin Crow, Don Walser, Skeeter Davis. -- Lee Nichols
Jimmy Day
Amy Haugesag wrote: The prospect of a new Kimmie record and our own Sir President Joe Gracey Sir back amongst us is almost too much good news to take in at once. Luckily, there's no heat in my apartment (er, that is, the one room of my apartment that's habitable), so I can't get *too* happy all at once. Welcome back, Joe. You've been missed. --Amy did you say "dissed"? It is currently 95 degrees in Austin. God-damn, I had forgotten about the pedal steel guitar. Yesterday at Jimmy Day's funeral (made fragrant by the odor of band bus fumes wafting through the room when the doors would open, fittingly) I remembered. Jimmy Day, possibly the greatest steel player of all time, was buried yesterday in a little town south of Austin. There were a bunch of people there, overflowing out into the front yard, a testament to how much love and respect he engendered. Jimmy and I went back to the early seventies when he was in Willie's band and I was a progressive-country DJ and music writer. I remember the first time I noticed him much; Willie played at a Ford dealer's here (in return for a new station wagon so they could get around) and I suddenly noticed what a beautiful sound he created around Willie's voice. I subsequently became a producer and used him every chance I could on sessions. Kimmie and I brought him into our Texas Swing band for several years, then he turned around and started a band and pretty soon we were in it, traveling around Texas doing gigs. We'd play a dance hall down in Bandera that Wills and Willie and Bush had consecrated, turn around and drive back home at 4 AM and Kimmie would be up two hours later to go to her job in town. Having Jimmy in your band was pure joy. He was always the one you could turn to to give you a rock-solid intro, even if he had only heard the song one time three years before. You could always lean on him for a great solo, with a perfect handoff into the chorus. His pickup notes would be cues to everybody else in the band so they all knew where it was headed next. Sessions were the same. He defined "pro". He came on time, sober, didn't talk about his problems, kept his mouth shut unless asked for his opinion, and played totally useable, brilliant stuff, normally on the first take. He wouldn't write a chord chart; he would just play through the song a couple of times, memorize it (no matter how tough the changes might be) and nail it. He said he learned his studio chops doing demos at Tree Music, where they got paid ten dollars per demo. This encouraged speed and not screwing up, since the more songs you got cut in a session the more money you got paid. Later I got to record several records for him. They turned into great projects, with guests like Johnny Bush and Willie and Rodriquez. One of them transmogrified into a Willie Nelson record because Willie came in to sing a song and stayed for four days. Not long after that Willie and I recorded "Spirit", so I have Jimmy to thank for that. I considered him to be a soul brother, something far beyond a professional relationship. If I was still a hippie I'd say I'd known him for a thousand lifetimes. There is debate, of course, on who is the best. I have worked with Tom Brumley (Buck Owens, Rick Nelson), Buddy Emmons (Ernest Tubb, everybody), Leon McAuliffe (Bob Wills), Herb Remington (Bob Wills), and a lot of other players, including getting to watch Lloyd Green do a session with Gene Watson, and to my way of thinking Jimmy had the ability to project more of his spirit into his playing than anybody. Obviously all of those guys could play their asses off, and most people probably give Emmons the nod as to technical proficiency, but for pure searing blue soul, it was Jimmy for me. Jimmy's Blue Darlin' steel and amp were set up and turned on next to the casket, ready to be played, at the funeral. This was pretty tough, but I was OK. But then they started to play some of his famous records- Crazy Arms, Patsy Cline stuff, Willie, George Jones, and finally some of the stuff we did together for his last sessions. The enormous depth of feeling in his playing hit me harder than ever before and I couldn't help but cry like an idiot then. Man, steel is such an emotional instrument in the right hands. (Sometimes when people would say something about how great his steel sounded, he'd hold up his long, beautiful hands and say "These help..." as a gentle, humourous reminder that it was the driver, not the hardware. He was not falsely modest, nor did he hold forth on himself. He just recognized that he was a single-purpose instrument and he had accomplished what he was supposed to.) I am glad that Jimmy Day played on our most recent recordings. He played on every record that Kimmie and I have made. We recorded one of his songs, "Home John", on "West Texas Heaven". I almost wish I could die right now just to hear Jimmy Day play steel with Bob Wills and
Re: Jimmy Day
Thanks Joe!
RE: Jimmy Day
I was so moved I went and got all my albums and had my own little memorial, right here at the station, in front of everyone. Wynn
Re: Jimmy Day
"R.W.Shamy Jr." wrote: Joe I personally want to say Thank You for the Jimmy Day piece. Also I would like to add I have never met anyone who left such an impression on me as you did when I was first introduced to you in Austin this past summer at the Arc of Austin benefit. Again, thank youRW Shamy WDVR-FM Thanks, RW. My pleasure. -- Joe Gracey President-For-Life, Jackalope Records http://www.kimmierhodes.com
