Jim Lauderdale

James Russell Lauderdale (born April 11, 1957) is an American country, bluegrass, and Americana singer-songwriter.

After graduating from college, Lauderdale lived in Nashville for five months in the summer of 1979 while he tried to get a recording or publishing deal.

He hung out a lot with Roland White, an accomplished mandolin player, with whom he cut a record.

But things never took off, so he decided to move to New York, where he played in Floyd Domino's band and performed as a solo artist.

In 1980 he met singer-songwriter Buddy Miller.

He played in Miller's band in the active twang music scene that was evolving at the time.

During his time in New York City, he also worked in the mailroom and as a messenger at Rolling Stone magazine.

He often was assigned to pick up and drop off photographer Annie Leibovitz's equipment.

Lauderdale joined the national touring production of Pump Boys & Dinettes, which eventually reached Los Angeles where he met musicians Rosie Flores, Billy Bremmer, Pete Anderson, Lucinda Williams, Dale Watson, and others.

John Ciambotti became Lauderdale's manager and Lauderdale relocated to Los Angeles in the late 1980s, recording an album for CBS (which was later released as The Point of No Return).

The record was influenced by the Bakersfield sound of Buck Owens.

Armed with a catalog of a few hundred songs he had written, Lauderdale was able to get a publishing deal with a small company called Blue Water Music (based in Houston, with a small office in Nashville).

Living in Los Angeles he made a record with Anderson producing, but it was never released.

Lauderdale then got a publishing deal with Reprise and moved into the second floor of Buddy and Julie Miller's house until he got his own place in Nashville.

Since 1986, he has released 31 studio albums, including collaborations with artists such as Dr. Ralph Stanley, Buddy Miller, and Donna the Buffalo.

A "songwriter's songwriter," his songs have been recorded by dozens of artists, notably George Strait, Gary Allan, Elvis Costello, Blake Shelton, the Dixie Chicks, Vince Gill, and Patty Loveless.

Lauderdale was born in Troutman, North Carolina, the son of Barbara Ann Lauderdale (née Hobson) and Dr. Wilbur "Chap" Chapman Lauderdale.

Lauderdale's mother was originally from Kansas.

In addition to her work as a public school and piano teacher, she was active in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Churches in Troutman, Charlotte, and Due West, South Carolina, where she served as music director, church organist, and choir director.

His father was born in Lexington, VA, the son of Reverend David Thomas and Sallie Ann Lauderdale (née Chapman).

Lauderdale's father was a noted minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

Lauderdale has one sister.

He grew up in Due West, South Carolina.

Both of his parents were singers.

He too sang in his early years, and learned the drums at 11, the harmonica at 13, and the banjo at 15.

He has cited the influence of Ralph Stanley and bluegrass music from an early age.

He played a variety of music, including bluegrass, Grateful Dead, and folk in a duo with best friend Nathan Lajoie as a teenager.

During his childhood in Due West, many music acts came to Erskine College.

Lauderdale remembers enjoying the album Will the Circle be Unbroken by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Neil Young's Harvest. He attended the Carolina Friends School in Durham NC and then went on to the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC, studying theater.

He played in country and bluegrass bands during college.

Lauderdale is a long-time resident of Nashville, Tennessee.

Lauderdale's solo debut, Planet of Love, was produced by Rodney Crowell and John Leventhal and released in 1991.

Lost in the Lonesome Pines, a 2002 collaboration with Ralph Stanley, won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.

In 2003, Lauderdale was joined by roots/jam band Donna the Buffalo on the album Wait 'Til Spring.

The Bluegrass Diaries won the same award in 2008.

Could We Get Any Closer? was nominated for a Grammy in 2009.

In 2013, Lauderdale started his own record label, Sky Crunch, so that he could release his many albums on a schedule that suited him.

In 2013, Lauderdale released Old Time Angels (a bluegrass album) and his first solo acoustic album, Blue Moon Junction, followed by Black Roses, with the North Mississippi All-Stars.

Lauderdale appears on Laura Cantrell's 2013 release No Way There From Here.

In April 2018, Lauderdale signed to Yep Roc Records.