Uncle Jimmy Thompson

James Donald Thompson (b. 1848, Baxter, Tennessee - d. February 17, 1931, Laguardo, Tennessee) was an American country musician. He was one of the earliest people associated with country music recording, then called hillbilly music. Thompson's performance on radio station WSM's National Barn Dance on November 25, 1925 and subsequent appearances on the show would prove to be a key influence on the artistic direction of what would eventually become the Grand Ole Opry. [Charles Wolfe, " [http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=G039 Grand Ole Opry] ." "The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture", 2002. Retrieved: 23 April 2008.]

Little is known of Thompson's early life. He lived in Texas for a time but had returned to Tennessee by 1912, making a living as a farmer and playing music locally. He toured with his wife regionally as he left farming; Thompson played fiddle while Aunt Ella danced. Eventually, his niece Eva Thompson Jones accompanied him on piano. [Eugene Chadbourne, " [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wjfyxqwgldje~T1 Uncle Jimmy Thompson - Biography] ." Allmusic.com. Retrieved: 23 April 2008.]

Uncle Jimmy Thompson is often credited with being the first performer on the Grand Ole Opry, due largely to Opry-creator George Hay's 1945 book on the Opry's history. While Thompson was Hay's first guest on WSM's barn dance, however, several hillbilly musicians— namely a local string band led by Humphrey Bate— had been performing on the station in the weeks before Hay arrived and were credited by the Opry's earliest members for laying the foundation for the Opry's success. In any case, on November 25, 1925, a guest on Hay's WSM debut of National Barn Dance cancelled at the last minute, and Thompson was called in as a replacement. The 77-year-old Thompson stepped in and did a 1-hour solo performance that resulted in an enormous number of calls and letters to WSM. In the following weeks, Thompson continued on Hay's show as a featured performer. The station generated considerable publicity when it invited Maine fiddler Mellie Dunham— who had received an award from Henry Ford as the best fiddler in the United States— to challenge Thompson to a "fiddling duel." When Dunham declined, Thompson said of Dunham, "he's affeared of me." [Jack Hurst, "Nashville's Grand Ole Opry" (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1975), 80-83.]

Only four recordings of Thompson's survive, but they are important documents of what music in the rural American South might have sounded like before the advent of recording technology. Thompson, in the meantime, became a storied figure, subject to a number of musical tall tales; it was said that he knew 10,000 or 100,000 songs, and that he once beat any and all challengers in a week-long continuous fiddling competition. He died in 1931; since then a historic site dedicated to him has been erected on Tennessee Route 109. [Eugene Chadbourne, " [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wjfyxqwgldje~T1 Uncle Jimmy Thompson - Biography] ." Allmusic.com. Retrieved: 23 April 2008.]

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