Guitarist from Springfield, Ohio, who started out as a brass musician at nine years of age and gravitated to the guitar when he was thirteen years old.
He helped start up Teddy and the Rough Riders in 1958, and they were a popular draw in Indiana and Ohio and released some records on Huron, MegaCity, and Tilt.
In 1965, the Rough Riders rode off into the sunset but Jim started a new group with three of its members and dubbed them The Knights. They were the club band at a place called Little Mickey’s in Dayton, Ohio.
Jim moved to the Big Apple and eschewed his guitar for a bass and performed and recorded with a couple of bands, Bo Grumpus and Jolliver Arkansaw.
Being in New York lent itself to studio work, and some of the artists and groups he recorded with included Borderline, Paul Butterfield, Bobby Charles, Nick Gravenites, Great Speckled Bird, Bob Neuwirth, Todd Rundgren and Eric Von Schmidt.
Jim became acquainted with Stephen Bruton while he was in Woodstock, New York, and they began collaborating. Stephen was from Texas, and Jim decided to relocate to Fort Worth where they started a group called Little Whisper and the Rumors, a rhythm and blues band who recorded for Atlantic in 1976.
In 1977, Jim, Stephen, and his brother Sumter co-founded The Juke Jumpers, a Texas-flavored band who played everything from blues to jump to rhythm and blues to rockabilly. They recorded several albums, such as Border Radio, The Joint’s Jumpin’!, The Juke Jumpers, Live!, Jumper Cables, and Panther City Blues, and appeared in the motion picture, A Tiger’s Tale. Jim also made a cameo appearance in David Byrne’s True Stories in 1986. The Juke Jumpers continued to be active throughout the rest of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
In the late ‘90s, Jim became involved in another group, Lost Country, and they released a spate of albums in the new millennium, including Broken People, Down on the Borderline, Long Gone Thrill, Scattered, Turn Your Radio Around, and When We Danced.
In 2009, the Juke Jumpers issued another album, Villa Acuna, 1963. Jim has also been busy producing other acts such as James Hinkle, Wes Race, and Larry Stone. In 2013 he released his own album 3 Quarter Dime and in 2015 worked on an album with Sid and Billy King. He also worked on We Made It Ourselves by Men of Extinction.
Here he is playing “Snake Slider”…..
Sources:
- http://www.myspace.com/coolgroove1
- http://www.thecoolgroove.com/
- http://www.thecoolgroove.com/colegrov.html
- http://www.mp3.com/artist/jim-colegrove/summary/
- http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jim-colegrove-mn0001178170
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/949069-Jim-Colegrove