(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Jimmy Adams; Master songwriter & great guy! 10 years you've been gone. Miss you buddy. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2022-07-18

Jimmy Adams

10 years now you have been gone. Such a waste.

Jimmy Adams passed away 10 years ago last week.

Jimmy Adams, my friend, and an amazing songwriter. When he passed he left over 75 songs unpublished and unrecorded. And another 30-40 almost finished songs.

The few who remember Jimmy usually remember him because a few songs of his were recorded and sung by some greats / famous people.

The most famous version of one of Jimmy’s songs was recorded by Jonathan McEuen, son of John McEuen…. one of the founders of the Nitty Gritty Dirt band.

The song is named “Think I’ll Go Down To the Ocean” (This is the title Jimmy Adams gave it. Later, with Jimmy’s permission, the song was renamed to simply “Ocean” by Jonathan McEuen.

Jonathan McEuen performs it quite often and actually was able to sign a record deal based on the strength of this song.

On Jimmy’s Album: Jimmy Adams and Friends, Live at the Cafe Voltaire; there are 3 versions of the song. on one Jimmy sings it himself and John McEuen himself backs up Jimmy on the banjo. Alas, I cannot find any video of this version of the song. The only videos I can find feature Jonathan McEuen singing lead on the song. If I can figure out how to make my own videos and post to YouTube I will do so and update this blog. I have copies of Jimmy’s two albums.

here is the ‘famous’ version of Jimmy’s song.

Jimmy was 62 when he passed. He died on the operating table getting some relatively standard eye surgery (detached retina). The anesthetic killed him. His heart stopped and they were unable to revive him.

I will try to post some more of Jimmy’s songs to this blog once I learn how to make videos. Turns out you cannot embed mpeg files (audio files) into this DK blog. You CAN link to YouTube files. But YouTube requires video files to be uploaded …. not simple audio. So I have to convert songs into mpeg files, get video software, embed the mpeg files into the video, upload images into the video file, sync up everything.. then make a video file and then figure out how to upload it into YouTube. Sigh.. the glories of the modern world.

Any way, gotta tell you; Jimmy Adams was the nicest guy. Really sweat human being.

I remember how happy he was when the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (John McEuen) invited him to come to MerleFest (an amazing bluegrass, folk , Americana music festival in North Carolina) as the band’s guest. Jimmy and I hung around for 4 days backstage together.. running around like teen agers to all of the various stages and standing around awestruck as our various music idols walked casually by. MerleFest is / was Doc Watson’s festival in memorial to his son, Merle Watson (also a great musician and my buddy).

Jimmy camped out in a tent at the airport camping grounds for that Merlefest visit. For a couple days it rained mercilessly. Jimmy was still happy to to be there every damn minute.

First time I met Jimmy it was because I was producing an Americana music festival in Texas. Jimmy sent me a letter (old fashioned letter in an envelope) asking me if he could perform at the festival. Now most musicians would have sent me a press kit, photos, a copy of latest CD, Biography write up, etc.

Jimmy didn’t have any of those things. He was a pure songwriter. he wrote because he had to. The songs were bubbling out of him.

Jimmy didn’t have a press kit. he didn’t have an agent or booking agency.

his letter came in a simple brown business envelope. Inside was a letter written on a brown paper grocery sack in pencil and crayon. Jimmy explained who he was. A sign painter in California who also wrote amazing songs. He claimed the songs came to him almost whole like a vision coming upon him. he said he had over 50 songs ready to perform. And then he had a cassette tape of 2 song and the handwritten words to a 3rd. unfortunately I had to tell Jimmy that it was too late to play that year’s festival. We were all booked up and over full. But the songs were very very good. I promised to have him on the line up the next year. I loved Jimmy’s honesty and really, the quality of the songs were great.

Unfortunately I lost control of the festival before the next year came around. my partners got greedy and pushed me out. (took over my share of the fest). So I was unable to book Jimmy.

But we remained friends for all the years after. We corresponded, We talked on the phone. I met up with Jimmy a few times in Ventura CA for some of his famous Jimmy Adams and Friends concerts. Wow. Such a good writer. And so humble and thankful to have his friends….. like John and Jonathan McEuen playing behind him.

here is Jimmy’s nephew playing “Think I’ll Go Down To the Ocean” or “Ocean” as it was renamed.

I should have published this last week on the anniversary of your passing, It was kind of emotional for me as I contemplated that you were gone a decade. And kind of sad. I have been trying to find your wife of 26 years, Judy. I was hoping to find out if she had any of those other 70+ songs you had in your pocket but not yet published or recored…. anything.. notes, lyrics, snippets of recordings or drafts.. .I would love to get some of my friends to finish up and record some of those other songs.

But I wanted you to know… you are not forgotten.

I will try to amend this blog with your cool song stating same….. seems appropriate. Once I learn how to make and post a video.

Jimmy wrote a song for a musician friend of his titled “You May Be Gone, But You’re Not Forgotten”…. well Jimmy…. you are definitely NOT FORGOTTEN.

For you Jimmy. Miss you buddy.

For now…..

Jimmy on the right

and one more for you Jimmy. See you next go round. For sure.

you sir were definitely a “Ripple”….

RIP my friend.

love, Bubbasan

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/18/2107577/-Jimmy-Adams-Master-songwriter-great-guy-10-years-you-ve-been-gone-Miss-you-buddy

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.