Austin Music Titan Jim Stringer Has Died

Jim Stringer wasn’t just an Austin musician. He served as the connective tissue that held together Austin’s enterprising country music scene for over 30 years. The long-time name of Jim Stringer’s musical outfit was “The AM Band.” No, it wasn’t named for their pre-noon performances. AM stood for “Austin Music.” It was christened after drummer Lisa Pankratz once observed, “There’s only one band in Austin, and everyone plays in it.” Everyone played in Jim Stringer’s band, but Jim Stringer played in everyone else’s band too, backing up and recording with all kinds of musicians over his tenure, including a rather legendary run with Roger Wallace. If Jim Stringer was performing, Austin keys player T Jarrod Bonta was never very far behind. For the honky tonk folks from Nashville, you could consider Jim Stringer like Don Kelley of Robert’s Western World fame, only for Austin. His shows were proving grounds, a family affair, and everyone was welcome. Austin is the town that is inexorably tied to Jim Stringer now, but he actually grew up in Kansas City, and had an entire music career before he ever stepped foot in Austin. Like so many kids from the era, Stringer was first inspired to pick up a guitar after seeing Elvis perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. But it wasn’t a rock and roll guitar his parents bought for him. It was one with Roy Rogers painted on the front, and sheets of old Western songs to learn. This is when Stringer’s rock ‘n roll heart and country inclinations first intertwined. Stringer formed his first band when he was 12, and grew up playing guitar, focusing most on being an instrumentalist as opposed to a singer. While attending the University of Kansas in the mid ’60s, he formed a band called The Upside Dawne. Also in the band was a man by the name of Garth Fundis who would go on to move to Nashville, and become a legendary producer for Keith Whitley, Alabama, Don Williams, and more. After The Uside Dawne disbanded, Stringer moved on to the band TIDE in 1968, which was a mix of jazz, country, and rock, and became regional favorites. In 1974, he would leave TIDE to start working full-time on composing film scores, which he did for over a decade, working in one capacity or another on over 800 pieces of recorded music, not to mention ad jingles and other stuff, while also playing in bands in the Lawrence, Kansas scene. During this period, Stringer launched the most unlikely of all hits. Via a Caterpillar safety video, he co-wrote and performed a song called “Shake Hands with Danger.” It’s become an ear worm for many a blue collar worker ever since, and a cult classic.

In 1985, Stringer would leave the film business, started a band called The Novellas based out of Santa Fe, along with playing in a host of other projects before his nose led him to Austin, TX where he heard all kinds of cool stuff was happening, and wanted to be a part of it. After arriving in A-town, integrating himself into the local scene, and setting up a studio in his house, Stringer recorded the album Travis County Pickin’ released on Hightone Records in 1997. It featured fellow guitarists Dave Biller, Casper Rawls, Joel Hamilton, Sean Mencher, Brian Hofeldt, and Scott Walls, and became the gold standard for Austin guitar pickin’. This same year, Stringer started his famous AM Band, and started performing at standing gigs, nightly residencies, haunting just about every honky tonk in town that would have him and often six nights a week. Stringer also released multiple original albums, including 1999’s Swang, 2001’s On The Radio, and 2008’s Triskadekaphilia. Along with country and jazz guitar, as well as steel guitar, Stringer was appreciated for his songwriting. Jim Stringer was a fixture in the Austin music scene, playing with Roger Wallace at The White Horse and other places, along with his legendary Country Jam on Sunday nights at the Carousel Lounge. Recently, a Cancer diagnosis slowed him down, but he didn’t stop. Along with Rosie Flores, he performed in Blue Moon Jazz Quartet at the Continental Gallery on South Congress. “I’m just so very heartbroken to learn that my friend and guitarist Jim Stringer passed today,” Rosie Flores said on Monday, December 16th after news of Jim Stringer’s passing. “I can’t believe I’m writing these words. It seems surreal to me. He is so alive in my heart and I feel so sad for Dana Stinger, his lovely wife who has been his best friend and took such great care of him after he was diagnosed with cancer.”Stringer’s former film company said in a statement, “Jim was truly a pioneer in our industry. His contributions will continue to live on through the technology he built and the countless professionals who depend on it every day.”Jim Stringer was a 2007 inductee to the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. From Kansas, to Austin, from film and music, from country to rock and jazz, Jim Stringer left his mark. For Stringer, music was always local, and personal, and always about friendship first. – – – – – – –