ART
JIMMY MOORE PHOTOGRAPHY
Jimmy at O’More show (photo by Ava Moore)
CULTURE
Rolling Stone Magazine named Waylon Jennings album, “Honkey Tonk Heroes,” 9th of 50 Country Albums Every Rock Fan Should Own. The cover photo… yep.. that’s by Grammy nominated Jimmy Moore. With a broken camera from his grandmother, Jimmy’s been telling stories through a lens almost his entire life and oh what stories he can tell. Working in the Murray bike factory wasn’t for him, so he utilized his passion for photography to make a living. He’s most well known for his work with country music legends. “Many of the people that I have taken pictures of over the year were of country music stars here in the Leiper’s Fork and Franklin area,” he says. Introduced to the famous Chet Atkins by John Loudermilk as “the best photographer in the world, and if you don’t use him, you’re a dang fool,” Chet responded, “Well, I don’t want to be a dang fool,” and the rest is history. After that, he did covers for Chet, John, Jerry Reed, Willie Nelson, George Hamilton IV, Dolly Parton, the Oak Ridge Boys and more.
COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME
Dylan, Cash & The Nashville Cats Exhibit
This exhibit is steeped in not just history of people or music, but of a movement. It profiles the history of a genre of music that produced songs that give everyone goosebumps because of the lyrics portraying the time…fear, anger, regret and an ignition of a way of living. Nashville became a part of this movement because of it’s roots in authentic storytelling music and talented musicians who were open to making new sounds. People of all geographic and musical inclinations would come here to make music and that sound was merged into different genre’s, making the sound both natural and intense. Offering stories, antidotes, musical instruments and costumes of some of our greatest musical heroes and with a touch of a finger, in one of sixteen listening booths, you are offered the unique ability to hear the sounds of the some of the most well known musicians of all time such as The Steve Miller Band, Neil Young, The Beatles, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen and Gordon Lightfoot. The Nashville Cats were the studio musicians who to this day can be heard on many albums, some of them becoming frontliners themselves such as Charlie Daniels, Jerry Reed and Charlie McCoy. From New York, San Francisco, to Canada, music was morphing into hybrids of sounds never heard before. Johnston, Dylan’s producer in New York, was from Nashville. Johnston hired Charlie McCoy to play in the studio sessions and upon Johnston’s invitation, McCoy visited one of Dylan’s New York sessions. Dylan was so impressed with McCoy 96 YOURWILLIAMSON.COM | August 2015
While Loudermilk, Atkins and Hamilton IV were his biggest supporters/friends, he also tells stories about riding around town in a jeep with Jerry Reed looking for photo opportunities and hanging with Willie, Waylon and the boys then later became the official photographer for “The Johnny Cash Show.” He’s worked for NASA as a research photographer, trained soldiers on how to document using cameras and from September 11-21, 2001 lead the National Guard Bureau Documentation Mission Team at Ground Zero, NYC. According to Jimmy, when you find your passion, work hard and do the right thing, success is inevitable. Look for his book by Simon & Schuster coming soon.
he had him play guitar on “Desolation Row”. Dylan came to Nashville where he recorded the great Blonde on Blonde. Johnny Cash was making a difference with his show being recorded at the Ryman Auditorium bringing in new talent from across the country and also rewarding those who followed Dylan here. Cash and Dylan forged a friendship that would later inspire the recording of many duets, most well known being “Girl from the North Country” on Dylan’s Nashville Skyline album.
Photo by Rick Diamond Getty Images, Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum