Commented on: Jims Artificial Earth

I started playing guitar when I was five when my uncle, Glen Powell who was crippled from polio as a child, began to teach me. I spent endless hours sitting under the oak tree in his front yard playing guitar. I started writing songs when I was about twelve and I remember from the time I was 12 until about 17, that all we did was play music. When I was 17 or 18, I was playing music with my life long buddy Jay Moore and we played everywhere we could. We even opened for George Jones and Tammy Wynette in Aliquippa Pennsylvania in the late 60s. I was the base fiddle player for the band and Jay was the lead singer and played flat top rhythm guitar. Anytime we went anywhere we had our guitars with us and ended up playing. We played private parties, around bonfires in folk's back yards and even at a rest stop in Fly, Ohio. I began playing lead guitar when I was 19 with my uncle in a country band that played in clubs in West Virginia. My musical career was interrupted by the Vietnam War and I volunteered for service in 1970. After I returned home from my service in the U.S. Army I jumped right back into playing music. I played country music for a while in a band, then southern rock for a few years in another band, in nightclubs in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Then the 80s hit and family priorities and finances caused me to put my music on the back burner. In the 90s I got divorced and really started writing songs. Friends, family and people I ran into kept pushing me to do an album. I've played and written country and rock and roll music but my biggest interest has truly been writing songs. I either write about situations in my life or circumstances in the world around me. I've always wanted the opportunity to get my music out in the world for people to get the chance to hear it. Currently I've written over 200 songs. I this year I won the Northwest Alabama 2014 Songwriter of the Year.  Most recently I had 2 songs win Best in Category.  "Wildcat Blues" won for Best Blues Song and "Same Old Story" won for Best Gospel Song.