Johnny Gimble

One of the most impressive fiddle players in country music history, Johnny Gimble confounded most of his rivals by using a five-string fiddle. He earliest success was with <a href="spotify:artist:3YeRGjR8sa1PHjTUMjqsQg">Bob Wills</a>' <a href="spotify:artist:0VyOgubdcDnrJ0AWL2TRDN">Texas Playboys</a>, but Gimble has also recorded over ten albums of his own and picked up awards as Instrumentalist of the Year (CMA) and Best Fiddle Player (ACM).

John Paul Gimble was born on May 30, 1926, in Tyler, Texas. At the age of 12, he played in a band with his four brothers, and in the early '30s formed the Rose City Swingsters with brothers Gene and Jerry. The band played on local radio, but Gimble soon moved to Louisiana to play with <a href="spotify:artist:0ow3Ac8tlahUoDVXbRuaRy">Jimmie Davis</a>. In the late '40s he joined <a href="spotify:artist:3YeRGjR8sa1PHjTUMjqsQg">Wills</a>, playing fiddle and electric mandolin with <a href="spotify:artist:0VyOgubdcDnrJ0AWL2TRDN">the Texas Playboys</a>. From 1951 to 1953, he led his own group, which played as house band at <a href="spotify:artist:3YeRGjR8sa1PHjTUMjqsQg">Wills</a>' club. He then returned to <a href="spotify:artist:0VyOgubdcDnrJ0AWL2TRDN">the Playboys</a>, but the decline of Western swing in the late '50s and early '60s forced him out of the business.

Gimble was a barber and a hospital worker during the '60s but returned to record with <a href="spotify:artist:3YeRGjR8sa1PHjTUMjqsQg">Wills</a> in 1969. The experience primed him for heavy session work during the early '70s, including <a href="spotify:artist:2ptmyXoL7poH6Zq62h1QT9">Merle Haggard</a>'s 1970 <a href="spotify:artist:3YeRGjR8sa1PHjTUMjqsQg">Wills</a> tribute album and <a href="spotify:artist:3YeRGjR8sa1PHjTUMjqsQg">Wills</a>' final appearance on LP, For the Last Time (1974). That same year, he recorded the first of his many solo albums, Fiddlin' Around.

Gimble won the first of his five Best Instrumentalist and eight Best Fiddle Player awards in the late '70s, and performed with <a href="spotify:artist:5W5bDNCqJ1jbCgTxDD0Cb3">Willie Nelson</a>'s touring band from 1979 to 1981. He finally hit the charts in 1983 with his Texas swing group, with the added attraction of <a href="spotify:artist:5sAg1HZePcFfhrs0G8A8OP">Ray Price</a> on vocals. The single "One Fiddle, Two Fiddle" was taken from the <a href="spotify:artist:5NfaORyb548xmt85LGHYFV">Clint Eastwood</a> film Honkytonk Man, and it reached number 70. The B-side, <a href="spotify:artist:3YeRGjR8sa1PHjTUMjqsQg">Wills</a>' famous standard "San Antonio Rose," also charted. His sideman credits also continued to add up, and in 1993, Gimble was nominated for a Grammy award in the Best Country Instrumental Performance category for his work on <a href="spotify:artist:5zfaMrd5q4szVTxVYWuoDV">Mark O'Connor</a>'s fiddler tribute album Heroes. Later in his career, Gimble was often seen playing on Austin City Limits and <a href="spotify:artist:6y394F42uSErDzD4QKAOdz">Garrison Keillor</a>'s TV programs. Johnny Gimble died in Dripping Springs, Texas on May 9, 2015; he was 88 years old. ~ John Bush, Rovi