Tag Archives: Jim Chesnut

Jim Chesnut – A Songs Best Friend

Jim Chesnut’s album is titled This Guy Sings! Jim approach to making music truly lives up to that description. Jim is a true artist who believes the song is the most important thing. Jim has the uncanny ability to deliver a great vocal to a terrific lyric and bring the song to life.

Jim started his career playing hotels in East Texas making good money doing cover tunes. There he’d meet up with a young Rodney Crowell just before his career led him to Nashville and fame and fortune. Jim took off to LA where he met three important music insiders, Bob Webb (Jimmy Webb’s father) Glen Hardin (Elvis’s piano player) and the legendary Leon Russell. They advised Jim to go to Nashville and get a record deal. It wasn’t too long before Jim’s song, Oklahoma Morning was catching the ear of Charley Pride. Soon after Charley Pride recorded Jim’s song, the famous publishing company Acuff-Rose offered him a songwriting deal. Within two months he had a record deal with MGM/Hickory Music where he was hand-picked by Roy Acuff himself to have his spot on the label!

This was the beginning of the end of a whirlwind career that had Jim signing with Mike Curb and United Artists Records, dealing with alcoholism, moving back to Texas and happily meeting the love of his life. Jim at this point left the music business for over 25 years before deciding to get back into songwriting and recording again.

Recently, KC Café Radio Music Director, Kathy Forste, had the pleasure to chat with Jim Chesnut via Skype from his home in San Antonio, Texas. They talked about his amazing early success, why he left the music industry, why he came back and what he thinks of the current state of the music industry. They also talked about his exciting new project, Texas Live Music Project and how it will help bring venues and artists together.

Listen to the interview here:

Download the interview here: Interview: Jim Chesnut, 2018/04/10