Jim Lauderdale Biography

Jim Lauderdale Biography

Jim Lauderdale is a Grammy-winning Americana/country/bluegrass singer and songwriter. He is well-known among music insiders for his many compositions that have been million-sellers as recorded by other performers. Jim Lauderdale was born in Statesville, North Carolina on April 11, 1957. His father was a minister and his mother was a music teacher. He played drums in high school, and after he graduated, he decided to become a solo performer in New York. He began singing backing vocals for various artists including Carlene Carter and Dwight Yoakam before scoring it big in Nashville after writing hits for George Strait, the Dixie Chicks, Patty Loveless, and more. His solo 1990s recordings have gained him much critical acclaim and a loyal cult following. In 2003, Lauderdale worked with the Hacienda Brothers and the roots/jam band Donna the Buffalo on their album Wait 'Til Spring.

Jim Lauderdale has hosted the Americana Music Awards for three years in a row, and won their first Artist of the Year and Song of the Year awards in 2002, as well as a 2003 award for the album Headed for the Hills. His 2002 album, Lost in the Lonesome Pines, a collaboration with Ralph Stanley, won the Grammy for Bluegrass Album of the Year. His latest release, The Bluegrass Diaries won the Grammy for 2008 Bluegrass Album of the Year.

Lauderdale helped lay out the blueprint for the Americana movement of the '90s, earning high critical marks for an eclectic series of albums that spanned hard country, slick pop, rootsy rock & roll, blues, folk, R&B, and bluegrass. He never sold that many records on his own, but his compositions were recorded -- often with considerable success -- by a number of contemporary country stars, including George Strait, Patty Loveless, Vince Gill,Mark Chesnutt, Kathy Mattea, and George Jones, among others. Lauderdale was born in Statesville, NC, in 1957 and grew up loving country music; however, he was also drawn to the theater and later moved to New York, where he landed roles in two national touring productions. He subsequently settled in Los Angeles, where he began playing the now-legendary alt-country hot spot the Palomino Club. With Dwight Yoakam producer Pete Anderson behind the boards, he recorded a track for the seminal compilation A Town South of Bakersfield, which helped him -- briefly -- land a record deal with CBS. He completed an album in 1989, but the label declined to release it; it finally appeared over ten years later on an overseas label as Point of No Return.Undaunted, Lauderdale signed with the Bluewater music publishing firm in Nashville, where his compositions found immediate success in the contemporary country world. Additionally, he sang backup on records by Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, and Rosie Flores and toured with everyone from Freedy Johnston, Nick Lowe, and Hootie & the Blowfish to Johnny Cash andMerle Haggard. He earned another shot with Reprise and issued his debut album, Planet of Love, in 1991, with production from Rodney Crowell and John Leventhal. The album was greeted with strong reviews by many critics, who hailed Lauderdale as a major new talent. Still, it would be three years before he would release another record; he returned in 1994, now on Atlantic, and issued two acclaimed albums over the next two years in Pretty Close to the Truth and Every Second Counts. In 1996, he moved over to roots label Rounder's Upstart subsidiary for Persimmons, yet another critical success.

Hopping to BNA, Lauderdale released Whisper in 1998, then returned to the majors on RCA, issuing the somewhat slicker-sounding, more commercial Onward Through It All in 1999. That same year, Lauderdale also took a detour into traditional bluegrass, recording the collaborative album I Feel Like Singing Today with the legendaryRalph Stanley for Rebel. Lauderdale finally found a more permanent home on Dualtone and debuted with 2000's The Other Sessions, a return to hardcore country. 2002 brought two projects: another album with Stanley, called Lost in the Lonesome Pines, and a country record called The Hummingbirds. Ever prolific, Lauderdale releasedWait Til Spring in 2003, Headed for the Hills in 2004, Bluegrass in 2006, and The Bluegrass Diaries in 2007. Honey Songs, credited toJim Lauderdale & the Dream Players, was issued in 2008.

Jim's musical influences include the legendary Dr. Ralph Stanley and George Jones. These influences and his unique sense of melody and lyric help forge a sound that is truly his own. As a performer his credits include production, writing and collaborating on albums such as, "Wait 'Til Spring" with Donna the Buffalo, "Headed for the Hills” with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, "I Feel Like Singing Today" and the Grammy winning “Lost in the Lonesome Pines” with Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys.

Jim’s solo albums include “The Hummingbirds” (Dualtone 2002), “The Other Sessions” (Dualtone 2001), “Onward Through it All” (RCA 1999), “Whisper” (BNA 1997), “Persimmons” (Upstart 1996), “Every Second Counts” (Atlantic 1995), “Pretty Close to the Truth” (Atlantic 1994), and “Planet of Love” (Reprise 1991), as well as his two brand new releases “Country Super Hits, Volume 1” and “Bluegrass” (Yep Roc 2006).  "It's been a particularly great period for me," says Lauderdale. "Thanks to the records - I'm performing more and more, which I love. And I love that I can play the Opry one weekend, a jam-band festival the next and then a bluegrass festival the following week. That's really inspiring to me and I think there's a real thread there. The roots are the same for all of them and that's the music I'm interested in."