Joe Stampley (born June 6, 1943) is an American country music singer. He had success as the lead singer of a rock group, in a country duo with Moe Bandy, and as a solo performer. Stampley has released over 20 albums and more than 60 singles in a career that spans seven decades. In 2000, he formed Critter Records.
He was born in Springhill, Louisiana, United States, to R. C. Stampley, Jr. (1920–2000) and Mary E. Stampley (1924–2004). Joe grew up listening to Hank Williams and before he was ten, he was playing piano. Following his family’s move to Baytown, Texas, he had an opportunity to sing for Hank Williams on a radio program. Williams encouraged him and after high school, the family moved back to Springhill. By now, he had discovered the Everly Brothers and Jerry Lee Lewis. By age fifteen, he was writing songs and cutting demo records with local deejay Merle Kilgore. He arranged for Stampley to record two sides with Imperial Records, and the resulting single, "Glenda" (1959), sold well locally but not elsewhere. In 1961, Chess Records released another single by Stampley, "Teenage Picnic", but it also flopped.
He attended Southern State College in Magnolia, Arkansas. “I majored in pool,” he said, only half joking. It was while attending Southern State that he formed The Uniques. Members included brother Bobby Stampley of Springhill, bass; Ray Mills of nearby Sarepta, lead guitar; Mike Love of Magnolia, Arkansas, drums; Jim Woodfield of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, guitar, and Joe Stampley, keyboard and lead vocalist. The Uniques were based out of Shreveport, about 55 miles southwest of Springhill, and began performing in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. In 1965, they recorded "Not Too Long Ago" (another Kilgore/Stampley composition), the first national hit for Paula Records. One year later, they followed with "All These Things". The Uniques released four original albums, and one greatest hits compilation between 1965 and their 1970 breakup. Most of their material was rooted in rhythm and blues, rock, pop, and swamp pop genres.
In 1971, Stampley signed with ABC-Dot and recorded seven country albums that produced such hits as "Soul Song", "Too Far Gone", "If You Touch Me, You've Got To Love Me", "I'm Still Loving You", and a remake of "All These Things" as a two-step, which reached number one on the country chart. In 1975, he moved to Epic Records, where he released 13 albums, including such hits as "Roll On Big Mama," "Red Wine and Blue Memories," "If You've Got Ten Minutes (Let's Fall in Love)", "Do You Ever Fool Around", and "I'm Gonna Love You Back to Lovin' Me Again."
During the height of his success, Stampley began teaming with Moe Bandy on a string of duets. Unlike the honky-tonk standards for which both artists were known, most of the "Moe and Joe" collaborations were tongue-in-cheek novelty and satirical songs. Their first charting hit together, "Just Good Ol' Boys", became a number-one hit in September 1979, and was their most successful single. Their other hits were "Holding the Bag", "Hey Moe, Hey Joe" (a cover of a single originally recorded by Carl Smith, with modified title and lyrics), and "Where's the Dress". The latter was a satire on Boy George, and had an opening guitar riff similar to Culture Club's number-one pop hit "Karma Chameleon", which got the duo into copyright problems.
Joe & Moe
"Where's The Dress" won the American Video Association's award for Video of the Year in 1984.
Bandy and Stampley were recognized as the Country Music Association's 1980 Vocal Duo of the Year (as Moe and Joe), and won the Academy of Country Music's Vocal Duo award for two consecutive years.
Stampley has over 60 charted records. Joel Whitburn ranked him 52nd among all country artists from 1944–1993 for charted singles. In 1976, he had eight singles on the Billboard country chart and was Billboard's singles artist of the year. In 2000, he founded Critter Records. The first act signed to the label was Billy Hoffman. On their 45th Anniversary reunion in 2010 in Springhill, LA., , Joe Stampley, and The Uniques were inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame.
As of today, Stampley occasionally performs in his native Springhill.
Dee Lawson (born circa 1929 - March 25, 2013) had a brief career as a New York club performer.
Todays post is about one of the many not very well known female singers whose only musical legacy is that they recorded one or two albums, before disappearing into the mists of time. After a good hours searching the internet I could not find much information about todays profiled singer, not even her birthdate, but here goes.
Dee Lawson was born during late 1928 or early 1929. There is nothing regarding her early years, except her album liner notes that she hailed from the very fashionable Oyster Bay area of Long Island, New York. In an interview in 1987 she said that it was in Oyster Bay that she began singing in a church choir as a soprano. She had married young and had a son John Robert Lawson, but was divorced six months after he was born. While working in a local bakery, she sang in a little place in Oyster Bay on weekends for nothing, just to gain experience and was prompted by her musician friends to do club dates. She started to sing to a select group of intimate smart clubs in New Orleans, Florida and Long island.
While on Long Island she appeared at the Dog & Duck Club located in Sayville. The proprietor Ed Stokes was also a popular New York disc jockey. It was Stokes who was instrumental in giving Dee her first "break" and brought her to the attention of Roulette Records, resulting in the making of her only album "Round Midnight." This has become a well respected jazz album with backing musicians such as Doc Severinsen, Al Klink, Jimmy Cleveland, and Steve Uliano. Lawson's career soared from playing for free in Oyster Bay on Long Island, N.Y., to singing for $1,500 a week in places like Birdland in New York, The Blue Note in Chicago, the Bert Parks Radio Show, the Club International, Air Force bases and Preservation Hall in New Orleans. She made commercials for Lucky Strike and L&M cigarettes and deodorant.
It was at Birdland in New York that she performed with Miles Davis and Maynard Ferguson. At the Club International it was Bobby Darin. Judy Holliday was with her on the Bert Parks Radio Show, and she and Gary Morton performed at the Dayton (Ohio) Racquet and Tennis Club. Dee was enjoy the opportunities a show business career afforded her, and she made sure that her son John was with her almost everywhere she went. Her mother cared for him while she was on stage. After shows in Las Vegas, Lawson and Don Cornell would go bowling at 4 a.m. in their show costumes. "There we were, me in my frilly gown, bowling at 3 and 4 a.m. It was a kick," she said. She and Jerry Vale shared billing in one show, but Vale didn`t want to share the dressing room. "Oh, we used to fight," she recalled. "He wanted the dressing room all to himself. The strangest person I ever worked with was Miles Davis. He was a super, super guy. When he played, oh God, it was out of this world." Their jam sessions at Preservation Hall, where the more "provocative" jazz came out, frequently lasted through the night, she said. "I wish I had taped those things, but you always think it`s never going to end."
The end for Dee Lawson was a new beginning for Dee Zibelli. Dee Lawson was on her way to bigger things when she met her second husband, Cye Zibelli. He didn`t want to be married to a professional singer. "I met Cye and he said he was not going to walk around and follow me, lighting my cigarettes," she said. "It was all set for me to do hotel work, which is the best work. It`s six months a year and the money is fantastic, but he said no. Also, my son was between 12 and 13 years old and those are very important years for a child. I decided, that`s it."
Boynton Beach
In 1962 the Zibellis moved to Boynton Beach to get away from the temptations of show business in New York. After her singing career had abruptly ended she served as a City Commissioner of Boynton Beach for several years until the late 1990's, as well as being a payroll administrator for the West Palm Beach Police Department, which she described as her day job.
Dee L. Zibelli passed away peacefully on March 25, 2013 at the age of 84 years.
(Edited from an interview with Laura Hubbard, the Palm Beach Post obit, Amazon and album liner notes) N.B. All information gleaned from the web may need confirmation, also if anyone has any corrections or can add to this bio please let me know.
Bill Mack (June 4, 1929 – July 31, 2020) was an American country music songwriter, singer, and radio host.
Born William Mack Smith, Jr., in the panhandle town of Shamrock, Texas, he was the oldest of two boys of Irene and Ernest Smith. His father worked in real estate; his mother was a homemaker.
As a boy, fascinated by radio, he landed a cleaning job at the little station in Shamrock that led to a spot on the air. While still in his teens, Bill Mack formed a band (in which he played guitar and harmonica) to play dances at Shamrock High School. He majored in speech at West Texas State College and worked for radio KEVA during his student years. At 19, he was news-director for radio KLYN in Amarillo. Bill got his first break of his multi-faceted career in Wichita Falls, Texas, where his own show 'The Big Six Jamboree' played over KWFT-TV in the early 50s. He emceed 'The Old Hadocol Western Barn Dance' on KWFT-TV and in 1951 this led to a contract with Imperial Records.
Mack cut a neat CD-sized bundle of 30 tracks for Imperial and came close to capturing the blue-collar aggression of primal rockabilly on tunes like "Sue-Suzie Boogie" and the 1952 piano- drenched "Play My Boogie" (Imperial 8174). Stints in broadcasting co-existed with further recordings for Starday ("Kitty Cat" and "Cat's Just Got in Town" represent Texas rockabilly at its best), Philips, United Artists, MGM and a host of smaller labels.
He signed with Hickory in 1970 and had an almost hit with 'Ladonna'. This, and other Hickory and MGM sides, were gathered up on the Discus album, 'Best Of Bill Mack (If There Is Such A Thing)'. His best known songs include 'Clinging To A Saving Hand' (Connie Smith) and 'Drinking Champagne' (Cal Smith, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Strait).
In March 1969, Mack joined Fort Worth's WBAP which beamed its 50,000 watt, clear channel signal all over the USA and was probably the most listened to country station of them all. His all-night 'Open Road' show attracted a fanatical audience of truckers, who anointed him “the midnight cowboy,” airline pilots and country entertainers. Its opening theme music was an instrumental rendition of "Orange Blossom Special", performed by Felix Slatkin and his orchestra. Because of WBAP's clear channel signal range via skywave at night, Mack's show was heard over most of the continental United States. In addition, Mack hosted the syndicated radio show Country Crossroads, heard on more than 800 stations across the country, and a similar cable television show on FamilyNet.
He also hosted the Overdrive Top Ten Countdown, a weekly one-hour country music countdown geared toward truckers, in syndication. 'Country Music Magazine' called him the last real radio star. While at WBAP Radio, Mack initiated the Bill Mack Million Mile Club for truckers achieving one million miles of accident-free over-the-road driving. Mack left WBAP to join XM Satellite Radio on its Open Road channel (XM 171). Two of the other main personalities on Open Road, Dave Nemo and Dale "The Truckin' Bozo" Sommers, were Mack's primary competitors before all three left their AM radio stations to join XM. Mack's radio program was heard weekdays on XM channel 13 from 12 Noon to 3 PM Eastern, and rebroadcast from Midnight to 3 AM Eastern. On April 29, 2011, Mack announced that Sirius/XM had terminated his contract to make room for a merger of two of the channels The Roadhouse and Willie's Place into one channel and that this was his final show.
Merle Haggard, Charlie Pride & Bill Mack
In the country music industry, Mack was also a songwriter. His best-known song is "Blue," one of LeAnn Rimes' biggest hits. The song won Mack the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1997. He encouraged the much-seized upon media hook that the song was intended for Patsy Cline who never got to record it although lots of people had including Roy Drusky, Kathryn Pitt, Polly Stevens and yodelling Kenny Roberts. Mack also wrote "Drinking Champagne," which has been recorded by numerous artists. The song was a hit for Cal Smith in 1968, and again for George Strait in 1990 on his album Livin' It Up. Some of his other songs have been recorded by Dean Martin, Ray Price, Jerry Lee Lewis and George Jones.
In 2000, Mack won the media category award given by the Grand Ole Opry. He was named to the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999, and the Country Music DJ and Radio Hall of Fame in 1982. His autobiography, 'Spins And Needles', was published by Travis Press in New York in 1970 (now out of print). He received keys to various cities, there were two “Bill Mack Days” in his city of Fort Worth, he was an “Honorary Kentucky Colonel.” and, now, there is “Bill Mack Street” in his hometown, Shamrock, Texas.
In his later years Mack been suffering from dementia and lived in a memory care facility when he was diagnosed with COVID-19. He was rushed to the Baylor Scott & White Medical Center, Irving, Texas, where he died two days later om July 31, 2020. He was 91 years old.
(Edited from This Is My Story, Wikipedia, New York Times & 5NBC)
Phil Nimmons OC Ont (June 3, 1923 – April 5, 2024) was a Canadian jazz clarinetist, composer, bandleader, and educator. Nimmons played "free jazz" and mainstream styles, and other genres including classical music. He composed more than 400 pieces in various genres, and for various instrumentations including film scores, music for radio and television, chamber music, music for large ensembles, concert band and symphony orchestras.
Philip Rista Nimmons was born in Kamloops, British Columbia and raised in Vancouver. He began playing clarinet in high school, leading a small band in his Point Grey neighbourhood. While studying 1940-4 at the University of British Columbia in preparation for a career in medicine, he played in local dance bands (Sandy DeSantis, Stan Patton, Barney Potts, Wilf Wylie, and Dal Richards) and joined the jazz quintet of the guitarist Ray Norris, heard on CBC Vancouver radio's "Serenade in Rhythm." Nimmons wrote many arrangements for Norris's group and composed incidental music for the CBC Radio drama series "Anthology." He subsequently studied clarinet 1945-7 at the Juilliard School with Arthur Christmann and composition 1948-50 at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto with Richard Johnston, Arnold Walter, and John Weinzweig.
Here's "Just You Just Me" from above album
In 1953 Nimmons formed his own jazz band, which, after some CBC broadcasts, made its concert debut in 1956 at the Stratford Festival. In December of that year it played with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In 1957 the band took the name Nimmons 'N' Nine. The ensemble grew to 16 musicians in 1965, renamed "Nimmons 'n' Nine Plus Six", and was active until 1980. The ensemble recorded nine albums from 1956 to 1976, toured regularly across Canada.
In its day, his big band performed and gave clinics in many Canadian schools, the concert portions often recorded for broadcast by the CBC. Nimmons was one of the first jazz musicians to find a sympathetic ear in the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council; and both, along with the CBC, helped to sustain his band and support its tours. It toured widely in Canada and twice travelled in the 1960s to Canadian Armed Forces bases in Europe. His large group disbanded in the early 1980s, but Nimmons continued to play occasionally with smaller ensembles.
He released the album "Sands of Time" with a quartet in 2001. He chose to remain in Canada for his career despite that many of Canadian colleagues went to the United States. In a 2023 interview, he revealed that he stayed because, "If everybody left, we're not going to have anybody to create a musical scene in Canada". In addition to free jazz, Nimmons played other genres including classical music. He composed more than 400 pieces in various genres, and for various instrumentations including film scores, music for radio and television, chamber music, music for large ensembles, concert band and symphony orchestras. His composition "The Torch" was commissioned for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, performed by a big band led by Rob McConnell. Other compositions by Nimmons include "Sleeping Beauty and the Lions" for concert band premiered at Expo 86, and "Moods and Contrasts" for the Esprit Orchestra in 1994.
Nimmons was a founder of the Canadian League of Composers. As an educator, he made substantial contributions to the study of jazz music. Along with Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown in the 1960s, Nimmons founded the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto. The institution was one of the first such schools to offer formal jazz training, but it lasted only a few years. He was involved in the development of the jazz performance program at the University of Toronto, joining in 1973. He became director emeritus of the University of Toronto degree program in jazz studies there in 1991. He also helped establish music education programs at University of Western Ontario, University of New Brunswick and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. He spent summers teaching at youth music camps.
In 1974, Nimmons received the first Juno Award given in the Juno Awards jazz category, for his album Atlantic Suite. In 1993, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was also a recipient of the Order of Ontario. In 2001, Nimmons was a recipient of the Jazz Education Hall of Fame which honours "individuals whose musical contributions and dedication to jazz education over the past 25 years have created new directions and curricular innovations for jazz education worldwide". In 2002, Nimmons received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts, for his lifetime contribution to popular music. On November 21, 2005, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada recognized Nimmons with the Lifetime Achievement Award. He received the DownBeat Achievement Award for jazz education in 2006, and the Jazz Report and National Jazz Award as clarinettist of the year for 13 consecutive years, from 1995 to 2008.
Nimmons met his wife Noreen Liëse Spencer at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and had three children. His wife was a concert pianist, who died in 2002 after 52 years of marriage. His daughter Holly, is the chief executive officer of the Canadian Music Centre. His sister Arlene Nimmons Pach was a classical pianist. He turned 100 on June 3, 2023, and died at his home in Thornhill, Ontario, on April 5, 2024.
(Edited from The Canadian Encyclopedia & Wikipedia)
Lafayette Leake (June 1, 1919– August 14, 1990) was an American blues and jazz pianist, organist, vocalist and composer who played for Chess Records as a session musician, and as a member of the Big Three Trio.
Leake was born in Winona, Mississippi, in 1919. Information about his early years is sparse, but he was a desperately shy man, but a natural piano player at home, with a vast range of music from classical to blues. He seems to have had formal training at some point and was proud of his ability to play Chopin, and would notate his friend Little Brother Montgomery's playing by ear. His range and his ability to replicate the work of other players, coupled with his powerful technique, made him stand out in the Chicago blues scene of the early '50s -- he became friends with Leonard "Baby Doo" Caston of the Big Three Trio, and was chosen as his successor when the latter's marital problems forced him to leave the group. Although Leake never recorded with that group, his enduring friendship with Willie Dixon, his reliability and his good taste made him a session mainstay, who recorded with all the major stars of Chicago blues.
Here's Slow Leake (1957) from above album
And when group leader Willie Dixon became a songwriter and resident producer at Chess Records, Leake came along, playing on a lot of the sessions that Dixon produced, and a lot more besides. Leake played piano on One Dozen Berrys, Chuck Berry's second album, released in 1958 by Chess. He was then on Berry Is on Top; Leake played the prominent piano on the classic original rendition of "Johnny B. Goode", as well as "Rock and Roll Music". Leake played on numerous other Chess sessions from the 1950s through the 1970s, backing many Chess musicians, including Howlin' Wolf, Billy Boy Arnold, Otis Rush, Junior Wells, Little Walter, Homesick James, Sonny Boy Williamson, Buddy Guy, and Taylor, to name but a few. Leake gave Chicago blues musician Harmonica Hinds his first harmonica lesson on the street in Toronto, Ontario.
During the 1960s, Willie Dixon formed the Chicago Blues All-Stars, with Leake as resident pianist. Leake toured and recorded with this group that featured at many Blues Festivals, at home and overseas until the mid-1970s. After that he did little recording or touring, although he appeared with Berry at the Chicago Blues Festival in 1986, and recorded "Hidden Charms" with Dixon in 1988. Besides being a respected performer, Leake was a composer. He recorded a number of his own songs as a member of various ensembles, and others have been covered by notable musicians. Fleetwood Mac, for example, recorded his song "Love That Woman" on their album The Original Fleetwood Mac. Leake's song "Wrinkles", performed by the Big Three Trio, was featured on the soundtrack of David Lynch's 1990 film, Wild at Heart. Blues band Slo Leak was named after one of Leake's instrumental pieces.
But for all of his talent and dexterity, Leake's shyness prevented him from exploiting his talent into stardom in his own right until very late in his career. Apart from some 1960s sessions with producer E. Rodney Jones, which yielded some not easily available music, it wasn't until the 1970s that Leake was recorded leading his own band. These were done for the French Black and Blue label, and have since been reissued on CD. Leake remained a ubiquitous presence in the credits of numerous CD reissues, especially in rock & roll and blues.
During the 70s, Lafayette stepped back from the spotlight a little, playing mainly in Chicago clubs, but his reputation and talent meant he was always a welcome guest on special occasions, like Chuck Berry’s 1986 Chicago Blues Festival show, and with Willie Dixon at the White House in 1989. Sadly, that was one of Lafayette’s last appearances.
Leake fell into a diabetic coma in his home in Chicago, where he remained undiscovered for several days, dying in hospital on August 14, 1990, at the age of 71.He remains one of the most enigmatic names on the Chess Records roster. In 2015 the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for Lafayette Leake at Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois.
(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)
Here's a video of a discussion and musical performance with blues musicians Lafayette Leake and Queen Sylvia Embry. Recorded on March 21, 1983.(Fast Forward to 0:28 for start)
John "Vic" Willis (31 May 1922- 1995) was a a singer, accordion, piano and member of the Grand Ole Opry through his work with The Willis Brothers and, later, the Vic Willis Trio, he spent his final 13 years as the secretary for the musicians' union in Nashville.
James "Guy" Willis, Charles "Skeeter" Willis, and John "Vic" Willis started playing music on their family farm as kids. As teenagers in 1932, the Willis Brothers formed the Oklahoma Wranglers, formed as a band, playing a blend of Western swing and cowboy. Skeeter Willis sang and fiddled; Guy sang lead and played guitar; and, in the original line up, eldest brother Joe played along. The Willis Brothers played on Shawnee, OK's KGEF throughout the '30s. In 1939, Joe married and left, and Vic, who played accordion, piano, and sang, joined.
The brothers moved to Kansas City to appear on Brush Street Follies until 1942, when they disbanded to fight in the war. Reunited in 1946, they joined the Grand Ole Opry and signed to Sterling Records, and had the distinction of backing Hank Williams on his first recordings.
In 1949, the group left the Opry and toured nationally with Eddy Arnold through 1957. They also performed in the films Feuding Rhythm and Hoe Down. In an attempt to play to an audience beyond just Western fans, the Oklahoma Wranglers name was dropped for the Willis Brothers. In the late 1950s, the Willis Brothers hosted a live noonday TV show on WRPG-TV, the NBC affiliate in Chattanooga, TN. Guy, Vic and Skeeter were accompanied by Chuck Wright, who played bass in full Indian headdress. Guy Willis also hosted an afternoon children’s program on the same station for several years.
The band recorded steadily with Mercury, RCA, and Coral before signing with Starday and finally charting with the truck-driving country hit "Give Me 40 Acres (To Turn This Rig Around)" in 1964 after which they had a few lesser entries to follow...But they were used to plugging away as second stringers: their big hit came nearly two decades after they started playing together, and even though they fell off the charts, they recorded and performed prolifically, regularly appearing on the Grand Ole Opry while cutting countless singles and albums for Starday Records. They recorded a whole slew of trucker songs and other novelty numbers, always looking for trend or a surprise hit to put the wind in their sails.
The band broke up in the '70s: Skeeter passed away in 1976, followed by Guy in 1981. Vic Willis formed a Trio with C.W. Mitchell and Curtis Young debuting on the Grand Ole Opry for the first time in November, 1980. The Vic Willis Trio remained a fixture on the Opry. Vic served an unusual role in the Grand Ole Opry cast from the early 1960s through the 1980s, producing and recording commercial jingles from his home recording studio, recording hundreds of commercials featuring country artists and others, for local Nashville and national sponsors, such as Big Star Stores, Kellogg's (for which they also performed live commercial jingles on the Grand Ole Opry when they were in town), Fender Musical Instruments, Acme Boots, Lava Soap, Luzianne Coffee, Levy's Men's Wear, and others.
Vic's Trio emained an Opry regular, until 1995, when Vic died in a car crash near the Meriwether Lewis Park and Monument on the Natchez Trace, at age 73.
Most of the Willis Brothers recordings remain out of print, which perhaps isn't so surprising since even in their heyday they weren't exactly the hottest band in the land. Still, those old albums are worth tracking down just to see what a hard-working, old-school hard-country band sounded like, plugging away in an era of slick Nashville pop.
John Paul Gimble (May 30, 1926 – May 9, 2015) was an American country musician associated with Western swing. He was considered one of the most important fiddlers in the genre.
Gimble was born in Tyler, Texas and grew up in nearby Bascom. He began playing in a band with his brothers at age 12, and continued playing with two of them, George and Jerry, as the Rose City Swingsters. The trio played local radio shows, and gigs at dance halls. Gimble later moved to Louisiana and began performing with the Jimmie Davis gubernatorial campaign. He was offered a job in the Governor's administration but turned it down to volunteer for service in the U.S. Army. Gimble returned to Texas after completing his service in the U.S. Army in World War II.
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Back in Texas, Gimble continued to hone his fiddling skills with a number of Texas radio and dance bands. In 1948, he made his first recording, playing with Robert Brother's Rhythmairs in Corpus Christi. A year later he joined Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, with whom he toured for most of the next decade. With Wills, he played both fiddle and electric mandolin, and distinguished himself by using a five-string fiddle (most fiddles have four strings).
His fiddling style was influenced by other Texas fiddlers who played the "breakdown" fiddle tunes. Gimble's fiddling style, while uniquely his own, came to be known as the "Texas fiddling style" that emerged during the first half of the twentieth century among fiddlers such as Cliff Bruner, Louis Tierney, and Jesse Ashlock. Gimble learned from them, and further developed while playing with Wills, who epitomized and promoted a new sound known as Western swing. Western swing rose to national prominence in the 1940s, combining the old-time, Southern-derived Anglo string band tradition, with its breakdowns, schottisches, waltzes, and reels, with the big band jazz and pop music of the day.
After Gimble married Barbara Kemp of Gatesville, Texas, in 1949, he settled in Dallas, where, in the early 1950s, he began doing radio and television shows with Bill and Jim Boyd (of the Lone Star Cowboys) and performed on The Big D Jamboree, a weekly variety show broadcast live from the Dallas Sportatorium. He broke off to form his own group in 1951, performing as the house band at Wills's clubs in Fort Worth and Oklahoma City, but rejoined in 1953 and continued to play with Wills until the early 1960s. He played fiddle on Marty Robbins' No. 1 hit "I'll Go On Alone".
In 1955, Gimble moved to Waco, Texas, and split time between running a barber shop near the regional VA Hospital and music. In 1960, he quit touring with Bob Wills and hosted one of the first locally produced television shows on KWTX, Johnny Gimble & the Homefolks. Gimble's show featured a young bass player from nearby Abbott, Texas, named Willie Nelson, and a lifetime friendship and partnership was born. In 1968, after repeated encouragement from his peers, Gimble moved his family to Nashville, Tennessee. From then on, his steady work as a session musician included sessions with Merle Haggard and The Strangers on their Bob Wills tribute album (A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World (or, My Salute to Bob Wills)), Conway Twitty, Connie Smith, Loretta Lynn, Lefty Frizzell, Ray Price, Willie Nelson, and Chet Atkins on Superpickers in 1973. The following year he took a cue from a song ("Fiddlin' Around") which he had written and performed on the Atkins' Superpickers album, and recorded his first solo album, titled Fiddlin' Around. He recorded nine other solo albums.
From 1975 to 1990, he was nominated 15 times for Instrumentalist of the Year and won the Country Music Association Award five times. Gimble toured with Willie Nelson worldwide from 1979 to 1981, and appeared in a supporting role in the film Honeysuckle Rose. In 1983, Gimble assembled a Texas swing group featuring Ray Price on vocals, and charted a country radio hit with "One Fiddle, Two Fiddle", featured in the Clint Eastwood film Honkytonk Man in which Johnny had a supporting role portraying Bob Wills. He appeared from the 1970s through the 2000s on Austin City Limits on TV and Garrison Keillor's broadcasts (radio). At the time of his death, he held the record for most appearances on the Austin-based PBS show. He was a member of the Million Dollar Band, and frequent guest on "Hee Haw". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 in the early influences category as a member of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.
Gimble's career spanned into the 21st century, recording with Vince Gill, Tanya Tucker, and performing at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards with Carrie Underwood in 2007. "Until Lloyd Maines surpassed him, Johnny held the record for most appearances on Austin City Limits. He played with heart and soul and had an infectious spirit and sense of adventure - both in his music and personality," said ACL Executive Producer Terry Lickona. Johnny was also a regular on Minnesota Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion hosted by Garrison Keillor, who in 1994 penned "Owed to Johnny Gimble" as a tribute to his friend after Gimble received the NEA's National Heritage Fellowship, and who performed the song again on May 9, 2015, to commemorate Gimble's life.
Gimble and his wife Barbara were divorced twice and remarried twice. They had a son and two daughters, and as of 2022 they had four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Johnny and his son Dick Gimble, a college professor of music at McLennan Community College, started a Western Swing Camp focusing on fiddle. After two years in Waco and with the help of daughter Cyndy they moved the camp to SMU's Taos Campus and ensured that the western swing style of country music was passed on to the next generation. Gimble's granddaughter, Emily, is a notable vocalist and keyboard player who has performed with Johnny, Asleep at the Wheel, Warren Hood, and Hayes Carll. She has since launched a solo career, based out of Austin, Texas.
In 2010, he released his final album "Celebrating with Friends," a collection of collaborations with artists like Nelson, Haggard, Ray Benson, Dale Watson, Vince Gill and others. Gimble died not far from his home in Dripping Springs, Texas, on May 9, 2015, aged 88. His daughter stated that her father was "finally rid of the complications from several strokes over the past few years". He was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2018.
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