Mr. JIMMY WORK PASSES

Kenny Foy · Post by **Kenny Foy** » 26 Dec 2018 10:44 am

Hope I can put this on here. Mr Jimmy Work, passed Dec. 22nd. Mr. Work wrote Makin Believe, On the Tennessee Border, What makes the Jukebox play and other hits thru the yrs. He was 94 years young.

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 26 Dec 2018 1:52 pm

Thanks for that Kenny.

Here's a good sample of what he sounded like in 1951:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPHoLra9-U8

Here's a few obituaries:

http://www.kfvs12.com/2018/12/25/heartl ... work-dies/

https://www.hornbeakfuneralchapel.com/o ... jimmy-work

https://www.tennessean.com/story/entert ... 410731002/

He made a bunch of fine recordings and had good taste in steel players (Jerry Byrd and Buddy Emmons, among others).

Here's a pic with Elvis, taken in Sikeston Missouri on March 9, 1955--Jimmy standing between Bob Neal and Onie Wheeler. He was also on the bill with Elvis the next day in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Godfrey Arthur · Post by **Godfrey Arthur** » 26 Dec 2018 6:47 pm

Godspeed Jimmy Work.

Your song Making Believe made the rounds on the recording circuit from the original Kitty Wells, to Dolly, Conway and Loretta, Emmylou, Bob Dylan, Willie, Ray Charles, Connie Francis, Merle, up from the Boondocks Billy Joe Royal and a punk rock version by Social Distortion.

Walter Stettner · Post by **Walter Stettner** » 27 Dec 2018 12:00 am

That is sad, he was one of the pioneer writers. RIP

Walter Stettner
Vienna, Austria

robert kramer · Post by **robert kramer** » 27 Dec 2018 8:46 am

12/27/18 Nashville Tennessean:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/entert ... 410731002/

Here's my favorite "Just Like Downtown" w/ Emmons doing his best Don Helms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL-hO3dLiCU

Anthony Lis · Post by **Anthony Lis** » 1 Jan 2019 10:12 pm

Got to know Work's wonderful recording "Bluegrass Tickling My Feet" while researching some of Jerry Byrd's late 1940s/early 1950s recordings a few years back. As I think it turned out, Byrd was NOT at the April 1949 session that produced that song; I see from Pragugefrank's Country Music Discographies online that Byrd did play on Work's subsequent session (in August 1949), and also at one of Work's 1953 sessions (playing bass!).

I also see Work didn't crack the country until 1955, so "Bluegrass Tickling My Feet" was never a hit, but it should have been.

Anthony Lis · Post by **Anthony Lis** » 1 Jan 2019 10:14 pm

Got to know Work's wonderful recording "Bluegrass Tickling My Feet" while researching some of Jerry Byrd's late 1940s/early 1950s recordings a few years back. As I think it turned out, Byrd was NOT at the April 1949 session that produced that song; I see from Pragugefrank's Country Music Discographies that Byrd did play on Work's subsequent session (in August 1949), and also at one of Work's 1953 sessions (playing bass!).

I see Work didn't crack the country until 1955, so "Bluegrass Tickling My Feet" was never a hit, but it should have been.