Event

Jim Lauderdale

$25 Advance/$30 Door. $35 Reserved Seating (Advance orders only for reserved seating). (Call Nash Arts 252-459-4734 for Reserved Seating.) Sponsored by the Nash County Tourism Development Authority.

Jim Lauderdale is a 2-time Grammy winning Americana icon, a singer-songwriter whose unmistakable rhinestone-incrusted silhouette has been a symbol for creative integrity and prolificacy for thirty-one albums over decades of recording. Hes an A-list Nashville songwriter whose songs have ruled the country charts while recording an eclectic catalogue of albums that run the gamut of American roots styles, all brought together on his new album Time Flies.

Everything about Jim Lauderdale - the man and his music - is classic and timeless, but hes a total original. The McCartney-esque melodies sung in his aching high lonesome tenor, the fiercely authentic bluegrass songs with mind-expanding psychedelic lyrics nothing about Jims music can be reduced to a single influence, and no other songwriter would fuse these classic strains of tune-craft into such unexpected but immediately satisfying combinations.

The son of a preacher dad and music teacher mom in rural North Carolina, Jims world was turned upside as a kid when he saw the Beatles explosive debut on Ed Sullivan, rewiring his creative mind. Teaching himself a variety of instruments, Jim explored songwriting as a teenager, fueled by a musical diet that ran the gamut from George Jones to the Grateful Dead, Al Green to the Stanley Brothers.

A visit to Nashville opened Jims eyes to how hard he would need to work to realise his dreams of emulating his troubadour heroes recording a bluegrass album with legendary mandolin player Roland White, but unable to find a record deal (the album was finally released this year).

In 1980, Jim headed to New York City to cut his teeth in the country clubs, making fast friends with fellow musical iconoclasts like Buddy Miller and Shawn Colvin. Jim honed his live chops and graduated to Los Angeles, where he spent the late 80s at the center of the fiery alt-country scene alongside Lucinda Williams and Dwight Yoakam, packing out the Palomino Club and catching the eyes of the local crowds and industry alike, leading to his first record deal.

While his classic 90s albums like Planet of Love and Pretty Close to the Truth drew him rave reviews, Lauderdales musical style was too eclectic to fit easily into the major label country box. There was no genre label for a left-of-center blend of country, blues, rock, soul, folk and bluegrass, so Jim had to pioneer one. These days, the identity of Americana music and Jim Lauderdale are one and the same. The first ever winner of the Americana Music Associations Song and Artist of the Year trophies and the honorary Wagonmaster award, Jim also served as host of the awards for many years. While some people struggle to define what Americana music is, others just point to Jims eclectic but totally cohesive catalogue as the defining example.

Although he never got to work with his idol Gram Parsons, who Jim immortalized in his classic signature song The King of Broken Hearts (also the title of a feature documentary on Jim), Lauderdale has realized that great dream of any musician to stand shoulder to shoulder making music with his biggest inspirations. His duet albums with bluegrass icon Dr Ralph Stanley earned Jim his first Grammy award, hes penned albums worth of bluegrass gems with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter and hes on a short list that includes Paul McCartney and Allen Toussaint as a writing partner of Elvis Costello.
Its no wonder that artists from Willie Nelson to John Oates line up to collaborate with Jim, hoping to snare some of that Lauderdale magic. After all, his songs have helped sell millions of albums for artists like George Strait, the Dixie Chicks, Patty Loveless, Lee Ann Womack, Blake Shelton, Solomon Burke, Gary Allan and Vince Gill. Classic songs like Where the Sidewalk Ends, You Dont Seem to Miss Me, Hole in My Head, Halfway Down, We Really Shouldnt Be Doing This and many more have come from his pen.

Now with his latest album Time Flies, Jim is once again setting the standard for Americana songwriting, running the gamut from the reflective Allman Brothers-esque title track to the psychedelic groove of It Blows My Mind, the Johnny and June chugg of Where the Cars Go by Fast (a duet with rising star Lillie Mae) to the classic honky tonk shuffle of Wild On Me Fast, smokey sax-infused Wearing Out Your Cool to the loping, sensual Violet. As befits his thirty-first album, its a distillation of all the stylistic avenues hes explored across his releases, with the feel of a greatest hits album despite containing all new songs.

Even as he celebrates the release of album that is being acknowledged as one of his best, Jim Lauderdale shows no signs of slowing down. In the next year, he will crisscross the globe on tour, write dozens of potentially classic songs, collaborate with peers, heroes and proteges and record multiple new albums. For Jim, its always about the road ahead
When I write or play or get into the studio, it feels like its all coming together for me - that this is what Im here to do. No matter what is going on in the rest of my life, how hard things sometimes get, I can leave behind this three and a half minute song and that makes it all worthwhile.

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Nash Arts (View)
100 East Washington Street
Nashville, NC 27856
United States

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Owner: Nash Arts

On BPT Since: Aug 30, 2012

Shelly Gray

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