It seems like a very long time ago now that I grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  That's where I first started playing guitar and developed my lifelong love for all types of music.  Early on I was raised by a black woman named Virginia who took care of me while my mother worked.  It was Virginia who first turned me onto the music of  Robert Johnson,  John Lee Hooker,  B.B. King  and  Muddy Waters  through her constant listening to the black radio station in Tuscaloosa, WTUG.  My mother had bought me a ukulele when I was 12 years old which I soon traded in on a guitar.  My brother-in-law was a big  Chet Atkins   fan and he would loan me Chet's records which I studied in great detail.  I had already started learning the basic chords and was picking out songs by ear like "Crawling Kingsnake" by John Lee Hooker, "Hellhound On My Trail" by Robert Johnson and "Yankee Doodle Dixie" by Chet Atkins . . . when the Beatles came out with "Love Me Do" the next year.  The Beatles changed everything for me, and, I found myself almost immediately in a band, playing songs by the Beatles and by various other Blues artists.

My group became the most popular band in town and we got the job playing at the YMCA every Friday and Saturday night.  My band, "The Gents", played throughout the South and traveled on tour with Duane and Greg Allman's band called "The Allman Joys" in the mid to late 1960s.  Duane and I became friends and he had a big influence on the development of my guitar playing at the time, exposing me to Freddie King as well as Howling Wolf, in particular.  I was also good friends in high school with Chuck Leavell who played keyboards in our main rival band in Tuscaloosa, "The Misfits."  Chuck now plays keyboards with  "The Rolling Stones" and has been very supportive of me and my decision to return to the studio, and, through Chuck I was able to meet the Stones in 1989.  I also had the opportunity to travel on tour with the Stones on the Voodoo Lounge tour in 1995 while in Germany and got to know Keith, Ronnie, Charlie, and Mick better.  I've included some photos from that incredible experience with the Stones.

Ronnie Wood, Jim, and Keith Richards		Chuck Leavell, Mick Jagger, and Jim		Charlie Watts and Jim

Later, while still in high school I was fortunate to join the Rubber Band, one of the most popular groups in the South and I got to play on many shows with a lot of top artists at the time.  Then, I met Eddie Hinton who had long been a guitarist I admired from Tuscaloosa and Eddie decided to produce an album of my songs in Muscle Shoals where he was then the staff session guitarist at Muscle Shoals Sound studio.  This record, "The Coleman-Hinton Project," was supposed to be my introduction into the big time as a singer/songwriter and guitarist, but, for reasons beyond my control, this was not meant to be and the record was never released.

The recording of this record with Eddie Hinton turned out to be one of the most important events of my life.  Through Eddie I learned so much about production and recording technique.  I also had the opportunity to play with some truly great musicians.  All of the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section played on my album, including Roger Hawkins, David Hood, Barrie Beckett and Jimmy Johnson in addition to Eddie on guitar, piano and harmonica.  Duane Allman was scheduled to be the lead guitarist, but, I persuaded Eddie not to use him and to use Tippy Armstrong instead because I knew Duane was going to leave town shortly to start the Allman Brothers Band.  Duane plays on the record, but, only on one song.  We also used the great soprano saxophonist, King Curtis , who played on my record only shortly before his death.  King Curtis had a string of hits in the 1960s and was the opening act for the Beatles when I saw them play in Atlanta in 1965.  We also used Conway Twitty's steel guitarist, John Hughey, who now plays with Vince Gill.  However, the high point of this recording has to be the trip Eddie and I took to London, England to record the string parts with the London Symphony.  Eddie made us write all of the string parts while on the plane going to London with no instruments, just blank pieces of sheet music.

After completing the album I played guitar in various rock groups around the South for the next couple of years, waiting for Eddie to get a record deal.  We had offers from Atlantic Records and Island Records, but, Eddie turned down all the offers.  I started playing guitar in Johnny Shines (1) blues band and it was through him, Johnny Shines(2), that I really began to appreciate the music of Robert Johnson with whom Johnny had toured in the 1930s.  After a couple of years of this I gave up on Eddie and decided to move forward with my life.

I became disenchanted with the prospect of being a full time musician and in my early 20's left Tuscaloosa and moved to Birmingham where I went on to medical school.  My medical training took me to San Diego where I did my Internal Medicine internship and residency and later I went to Portland, Oregon, where I did a Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship.  All throughout this time I kept playing the guitar.  I taught myself to read music and studied classical composers such as Bach, Handel and Scarlatti.  I also got heavily involved with jazz music, especially bebop and with players like Tal Farlow, Jimmy Raney and Johnny Smith.  Throughout it all, however, Chet remained my main source of inspiration for the guitar.  In 1986 I got an offer to return to Tuscaloosa to practice medicine and I went back home and stayed there until moving to Nashville in 1992.

It was during the time I was back in Tuscaloosa that I met Jo Foster who I nicknamed "Little Jo."  Jo had a major impact on my life and I was emotionally involved with her on a very deep level.  But, Jo and I were both married to other people and we decided it was best for us to end our relationship rather than hurt the innocent people involved.  And, so, in 1992 I moved to Nashville were I had the good fortune to meet guitar legend, Chet Atkins.  I became Chet's doctor and developed an incredible friendship with him.  It was because of Chet's encouragement and his belief in me that I decided to return to the studio after not recording for over 25 years and did the two CD's, "Little Jo" and "The Lost Treasures of Domenico Scarlatti."  I was also able to complete a tribute album I did for Chet called "The Guitar That Made America Great" and play it for him 6 months before he passed away in 2001

I am currently planning to do a blues album which I hope to start recording in the near future.  Recently, I have been involved in writing and recording gospel music and I now have my 2 gospel CDs on the site. The demands of my medical practice make it difficult for me to get into the studio and devote as much time as is required to make these records, but, I intend to continue what I am doing and cover additional genres in music which are a part of my musical background.

I hope you will enjoy my music.

Jim Coleman