1980 Tommy Jackson Nashville Fiddler - 6-Page Vintage Article

Description

1980 Tommy Jackson Nashville Fiddler - 6-Page Vintage Article
Original, Vintage Magazine Article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
When Tommy Jackson died in
Nashville on December 9, 1979, the
event was hardly noticed by the general
public. Neither of the Nashville news-
papers even ran a story on his long and
full career, and only a sharp-eyed reader
looking through the tiny death notices
would have perceived that one of the
country’s leading and most influential
fiddlers was gone. The musicians, of
course, knew; Tommy’s old friends and
companions, the veteran stars and
established studio men who had helped
establish Nashville as a country music
center, quietly spread the word through
the Nashville grapevine, and more than a
few showed up for his funeral. “Tommy
was only 53 years old,” one remarked.
“He had a lot more music to play.”
During his life Tommy Jackson
played his share of music. For over
twenty years, he was the premier
Nashville studio fiddler, and he probably
played on more records than any fiddler in
history. His back-up work ranged all the
way from Hank Williams to acid rock,
from the western swing of Bob Wills to
the bluegrass of Bill Monroe, from the
banjo picking of Grandpa Jones to the
smooth stylings of Tammy Wynette. In
addition to countless sessions backing up
other stars, Tommy emerged as a star in
his own right in the mid-1950’s, when his
long series of fiddle albums became
popular with square dancers around the
country. Fiddlers and bluegrass musi-
cians listened too, for during the 1950’s
Tommy Jackson was about the only
fiddler you could hear on records and on
radio, and a strong case could be made for
Tommy’s keeping fiddling alive in
Nashville during those lean years when
rock and roll threatened to engulf country
and bluegrass. It was difficult for any
fiddler growing up in the late 1950’s and
early 1960’s to avoid coming under
Tommy’s influence to at least some
extent.
Lovers of classic bluegrass have
listened to Tommy’s fiddling more times
than they realize. He was the fiddler on
Bill Monroe's 1951 version of “Kentucky
Waltz,” and was twin fiddling with
Gordon Terry on several 1957 songs,
including “Fallen Star." He recorded with
Charlie Monroe on his 1956 session for
Decca. He was on the first great Capitol
session with Jim and Jesse, at the old
Tulane Hotel in the early 1950’s, and he
backed his old pal Mac Wiseman on some
of Mac’s best Dot records, including his
1960 version of “Two Different Worlds,”
with the Osborne Brothers. (Mac himself
also once went out of his way to play
back-up guitar for one of Tommy’s solo
fiddle LPs on Dot.) Tommy himself
recorded an LP of "Greatest Bluegrass
Hits” which included his unique fiddle
versions of “Uncle Pen,” “Cabin in the...
14866-AL-8009-34