Jim Jones is a native Texan who headed West to live in New Mexico in 1991.  He’s a two-time finalist in the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk songwriter competition and has produced sixteen albums of his own and others’ music as well as three award-winning children’s character education music videos.  Jim is a student of the West and a life-long devotee of all things cowboy.

           
Following the 2002 release of his Western/Folk album, Breakin’ Even, he joined forces with co-producer/co-writer Rick Huff to produce a collection of songs representative of the Western perspective- hence the title, Western Takes.  In October, 2006, Jim, with Rick producing, released the next CD, The West: Then…Now…Next!.  Two songs from this album were nominated for the Academy of Western Artists Will Rogers Awards Western Song of the Year, 2007.  Two other songs were included in the Classic Heartland Radio’s Top Ten Western Songs of 2006.  A fifth song, “Livin’ Try,” was nominated for Best Western Song of 2007 for the New Mexico Music Awards.  In  September, 2007, Jim released the CD, Tilting at Windmills, a live recording at Cervantes Restaurant in Albuquerque.

           
Jim released a country album, Different State of Mind, in the fall of 2008 and this was followed almost immediately by the release of his next Western album, Still Ridin’.  In September, 2008, he received the Will Rogers Award for Male Western Vocalist of the Year from the Academy of Western Artists.  In May of 2009, his song, “The Cowboys of New Mexico” was named Western Song of the Year at the New Mexico Music Awards.  In November of 2009, Jim released yet another CD, Back Home On the Range , a collection of Western classics along with three new originals.

           
Jim keeps up a busy performance schedule, touring the West and as far east as Arkansas, Missouri and Georgia.  In his quiet, steady way, he continues to enhance his reputation as a fine songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist.  He appears at many Western festivals and Cowboy Gatherings, including the Tombstone Western Music Festival, The Colorado Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Arvada, CO., the National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock, TX and the Cochise Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering in Sierra Vista, AZ.  He was a featured performer at the Georgia Cowboy Gathering at the Booth Western Art Museum in 2006 and will be featured again at the Southeastern Cowboy Symposium at the Booth in the fall of 2010.  He has been a featured performer at the Montana Wild West Fest in 2005, 2006 and 2008.  He performs at coffeehouses and house concerts in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona , Arkansas and California, including great listening venues like the Arizona Folklore Preserve in Sierra Vista, AZ, the Solid Grounds Coffeehouse and the El Rey Theater in Albuquerque and Poor David’s Pub in Dallas.

           
Jim lives in Corrales, NM with his wife and two dogs, Waylon and Jessie.  His first novel, Rustler’s Moon, was published in May, 2009 and was a finalist in two categories- Best Historical Fiction and Best First Book- for the New Mexico Book Awards.  He’s currently working on his next book and his next CD.  In his “spare time” (????), Jim spends as much time as possible riding horses, fishing, skiing and camping.