Jimmy LaFave
Encyclopedia
Jimmy LaFave is an American singer-songwriter and folk
musician born in Wills Point, Texas
, a small farming community located near Dallas. At a young age, LaFave's family moved to the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, Texas
where he attended junior high and high school. By the early teens LaFave was making music perched behind his Sears and Roebuck drum kit. It wasn’t long before his mother traded a drawer full of green stamps
for his first guitar and the switch to singer-songwriter was in progress. His family later moved again - this time to Stillwater, Oklahoma
- where LaFave completed high school. Although he has lived in Austin, Texas
since 1986, many people think of him from being from Oklahoma because of his strong musical ties to the state and what he often refers to as his "red dirt music
." It was in the Oklahoma landscape that he began to define his sound, which in part, is a combination of his experiences there among so many authentic songwriters from the tradition of Woody Guthrie
.
Mixing blues, jazz, and country influences with the lessons learned from his musical hero, Bob Dylan
, LaFave is both a perceptive songwriter and an appealing singer. The years in Stillwater, a town that LaFave said contained a magical energy, left their mark. Other Oklahoma musicians besides Guthrie who inspired LaFave include J. J. Cale, Chet Baker
, and Leon Russell
. According to LaFave, the college town of Stillwater, Oklahoma was a young city with a lot of bars and other places to play music. Red Dirt music grew from a specific place in Stillwater - an old two-story, five-bedroom house called "The Farm" - which was, for two decades, the center of what evolved into the Red Dirt scene
. The house, located on the outskirts of Stillwater, was the country home of the Godfather of Red Dirt Music, Bob Childers
. Eventually Childers left The Farm, but the Red Dirt scene continued to grow and thrive. Many Austin artists, including Townes Van Zandt
, Joe Ely
, and Guy Clark
regularly played in Stillwater. When asked if he thought a ley line
ran through Stillwater, LaFave said "The dirt is real red there - which indicates the presence of iron, and that element certainly has magnetic properties."
(2007) for the FolkWax E-Zine, Arthur Wood calls LaFave "one of the finest Dylan
interpreters ever. Most of the songs on Austin Skyline were taken from live recordings of two shows LaFave played in Austin on two different nights at the Chicago House and at La Zona Rosa. Some of the songs were recorded in Marcia Ball's
garage recording studio.
The debut album was followed by Highway Trance (1994) and Buffalo Return to the Plains (1995), also on the Bohemia Beat label. In December 1995 LaFave won the Songwriter of the Year Award at the Kerrville Music Awards. In March 1996 he won the same award at the annual Austin Music Awards. LaFave's visibility spread nationwide in 1996 with an appearance on PBS' Austin City Limits
. He was paired with Lisa Loeb for an evening of "acoustic ballads and electrified folk-rock numbers" during the show's 21st season.
Between 1997 and 2001, LaFave released another three albums on Bohemia Beat, including the 1999 double-CD Trail - a 15-year retrospective of bootlegs, live performances, radio performances and studio outtakes.
In 1996, LaFave made an appearance at a tribute to Woody Guthrie held at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
, having been hand-picked to participate in the celebration by Guthrie’s daughter, Nora. The ten-day celebration, held in September 1996, included other notable musicians such as Bruce Springsteen
, Billy Bragg
, The Indigo Girls
, Ellis Paul
and Ani DiFranco
. DiFranco's record label, Righteous Babe
, released a compilation of the event, Til We Outnumber 'Em, in 2000.
In July 1998, LaFave performed at the inaugural Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
held in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. He has returned to Okemah for the festival every year since and in 2007 became a member of the Woody Guthrie Coalition - the organization behind the festival. Of the festival, LaFave said "...there's definitely something special going on in that scene. It's almost an American music festival secret. It's like beyond description....like, something is happening there that's literally changing the universe....it's rearranging the molecules of the planet...such really soulful musicians."
In 2003, LaFave produced a Woody Guthrie tribute show called Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway. The ensemble show toured around the country and included a rotating cast of singer-songwriters individually performing Guthrie's songs. Interspersed between songs were Guthrie's philosophical writings read by a narrator. In addition to LaFave, members of the rotating cast included Ellis Paul
, Slaid Cleaves
, Eliza Gilkyson
, Joel Rafael
, husband-wife duo Sarah Lee Guthrie
(Woody Guthrie's granddaughter) and Johnny Irion
, Michael Fracasso
, and The Burns Sisters
. The Godfather of Red Dirt Music Bob Childers
, also known as "the Dylan of the Dust," served as narrator. When word spread about the tour, performers began contacting LaFave, whose only prerequisite was to have an inspirational connection to Guthrie. Each artist chose the Guthrie songs that he or she would perform as part of the tribute. One of the songs Gilkyson chose was "Pastures of Plenty", while Cleaves chose "This Morning I Am Born Again" - a song he wrote using Guthrie's lyrics. One of the songs Paul chose was a song he wrote using Guthrie's lyrics - "God's Promise". LaFave said, "It works because all the performers are Guthrie enthusiasts in some form". The Ribbon of Highway tour kicked-off on February 5, 2003 at the Ryman Auditorium
in Nashville. The abbreviated show was a featured segment of "Nashville Sings Woody," yet another tribute concert to commemorate the music of Woody Guthrie held during the Folk Alliance Conference. The cast of "Nashville Sings Woody," a benefit for the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives, also included Arlo Guthrie
, Marty Stuart
, Nanci Griffith
, Guy Clark
, Ramblin' Jack Elliott
, Janis Ian
, and others.
and his first release on Red House was Blue Nightfall in 2005. In his review of Blue Nightfall for Freight Train Boogie, Bill Frater stated "This is his best work yet and if you don't know his work, a great introduction to an important artist." LaFave's second release for Red House was Cimarron Manifesto in 2007. On June 11, 2007 Cimarron Manifesto hit #1 on the Americana Music Association chart.
to establish Music Road Records. Located in Austin, Texas, Music Road owns and operates two Texas-based recording facilities: Cedar Creek Recording in Austin and Cherokee Creek Recording in the Texas hill country. Favorites 1992-2001, a retrospective from LaFave's years on the Bohemia Beat label, was released by Music Road Records in 2010.
Also in 2007, at Nora Guthrie's invitation, LaFave spoke and performed at Woody Guthrie's induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
In his review of LaFave's Texoma for FAME David Schultz said, "LaFave's songs are reminiscient [sic] of the Dust Bowl heritage of Woody Guthrie, the early rock of Chuck Berry, the quiet folk reflections of Bob Dylan, and the rock anthems of Bruce Springsteen.""LaFave's music is not lubricated with advertising dollars or formulaic song structures. It's honest, thoughtful and sincere - like baseball and mom's homemade apple pie."
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
musician born in Wills Point, Texas
Wills Point, Texas
Wills Point is a city in Van Zandt County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,496 at the 2000 census.-History:Founded in 1873, Wills Point gets its name from an early American settler, William Wills, who had arrived in the area in about 1848. Wills eventually purchased a cabin from Adam...
, a small farming community located near Dallas. At a young age, LaFave's family moved to the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, Texas
Mesquite, Texas
Mesquite is a city located within the Dallas/Ft.Worth area of Texas. As of the 2010 US Census, the population was 139,824.-History:The city was founded May 22, 1873, by a Texas & Pacific Railway engineer who purchased land along the Texas & Pacific line outside of Dallas...
where he attended junior high and high school. By the early teens LaFave was making music perched behind his Sears and Roebuck drum kit. It wasn’t long before his mother traded a drawer full of green stamps
S&H Green Stamps
S&H Green Stamps were trading stamps popular in the United States from the 1930s until the late 1980s. They were distributed as part of a rewards program operated by the Sperry and Hutchinson company , founded in 1896 by Thomas Sperry and Shelly Hutchinson...
for his first guitar and the switch to singer-songwriter was in progress. His family later moved again - this time to Stillwater, Oklahoma
Stillwater, Oklahoma
Stillwater is a city in north-central Oklahoma at the intersection of U.S. 177 and State Highway 51. It is the county seat of Payne County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 45,688. Stillwater is the principal city of the Stillwater Micropolitan Statistical...
- where LaFave completed high school. Although he has lived in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
since 1986, many people think of him from being from Oklahoma because of his strong musical ties to the state and what he often refers to as his "red dirt music
Red Dirt (music)
Red Dirt Music is a music genre that gets its name from the color of soil found in Oklahoma. Although Stillwater, Oklahoma is considered to be the epicenter of Red Dirt music, there's a Texas Red Dirt sound as well. Outlaws Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson are associated with that distinctive...
." It was in the Oklahoma landscape that he began to define his sound, which in part, is a combination of his experiences there among so many authentic songwriters from the tradition of Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
.
Early years
While still living in the small farming community of Wills Point, Texas, LaFave played drums in local garage bands. When his family moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma during his sophomore year of high school, LaFave played drums in the high school band, but eventually switched to guitar. An older brother showed him how to play a few chords and LaFave taught himself to play James Taylor and Bob Dylan songs by playing along to records. By age 15 he was writing and singing his own songs and the first incarnation of his band, The Night Tribe, appeared. After high school LaFave played music at night while working a number of day jobs. For a year or two he managed a club in Stillwater called Up Your Alley and recorded Down Under (1979) and Broken Line (1981) at Lamb Recording. During the early 1980s, LaFave traveled to several other cities to determine what the music scene was like. After visiting Nashville, Los Angeles, and Austin, he decided to move to Austin saying "I liked what was going on there."Mixing blues, jazz, and country influences with the lessons learned from his musical hero, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, LaFave is both a perceptive songwriter and an appealing singer. The years in Stillwater, a town that LaFave said contained a magical energy, left their mark. Other Oklahoma musicians besides Guthrie who inspired LaFave include J. J. Cale, Chet Baker
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...
, and Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
. According to LaFave, the college town of Stillwater, Oklahoma was a young city with a lot of bars and other places to play music. Red Dirt music grew from a specific place in Stillwater - an old two-story, five-bedroom house called "The Farm" - which was, for two decades, the center of what evolved into the Red Dirt scene
Red Dirt (music)
Red Dirt Music is a music genre that gets its name from the color of soil found in Oklahoma. Although Stillwater, Oklahoma is considered to be the epicenter of Red Dirt music, there's a Texas Red Dirt sound as well. Outlaws Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson are associated with that distinctive...
. The house, located on the outskirts of Stillwater, was the country home of the Godfather of Red Dirt Music, Bob Childers
Bob Childers
Robert Wayne “Bob” Childers was an American country/folk singer-songwriter who has achieved widespread critical acclaim since the late 1970s. Childers was known alternately as the "father" "grandfather" or "godfather" of the regional scene known as Red Dirt music...
. Eventually Childers left The Farm, but the Red Dirt scene continued to grow and thrive. Many Austin artists, including Townes Van Zandt
Townes Van Zandt
John Townes Van Zandt , best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet...
, Joe Ely
Joe Ely
Joe Ely is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist whose music touches on honky-tonk, Texas Country, Tex-Mex and rock and roll....
, and Guy Clark
Guy Clark
Guy Clark is an American Texas Country artist. In his career, he has released more than twenty albums, primarily on major labels. He has also written singles for other artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Rodney Crowell....
regularly played in Stillwater. When asked if he thought a ley line
Ley line
Ley lines are alleged alignments of a number of places of geographical and historical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths, natural ridge-tops and water-fords...
ran through Stillwater, LaFave said "The dirt is real red there - which indicates the presence of iron, and that element certainly has magnetic properties."
Bohemia Beat years
Moving to Austin, a strong singer-songwriter community, challenged LaFave to hone his writing skills. LaFave's "red dirt music" sound is a mix of rock, folk, rockabilly, and country, grounded in the landscape of his Texas and Oklahoma influences. LaFave says that his record, Texoma, celebrates the time he spent in Texas and Oklahoma and the sound of the music there. In 1992 he signed with Colorado-based Bohemia Beat Records and recorded his debut, Austin Skyline. The album featured four Dylan covers and its title is both a tribute to Dylan (LaFave loved Dylan's Nashville Skyline) and his new hometown of Austin. In his review of LaFave's Cimarron ManifestoCimarron Manifesto
Cimarron Manifesto is a 2007 album by red dirt singer-songwriter Jimmy LaFave. It is his second release for Red House Records. The album has been critically well-received and has appeared at or near the top of many folk/Americana oriented music charts....
(2007) for the FolkWax E-Zine, Arthur Wood calls LaFave "one of the finest Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
interpreters ever. Most of the songs on Austin Skyline were taken from live recordings of two shows LaFave played in Austin on two different nights at the Chicago House and at La Zona Rosa. Some of the songs were recorded in Marcia Ball's
Marcia Ball
Marcia Ball is an American blues singer and pianist, born in Orange, Texas but who grew up in Vinton, Louisiana. She was described in USA Today as "a sensation, saucy singer and superb pianist.....
garage recording studio.
The debut album was followed by Highway Trance (1994) and Buffalo Return to the Plains (1995), also on the Bohemia Beat label. In December 1995 LaFave won the Songwriter of the Year Award at the Kerrville Music Awards. In March 1996 he won the same award at the annual Austin Music Awards. LaFave's visibility spread nationwide in 1996 with an appearance on PBS' Austin City Limits
Austin City Limits
Austin City Limits is an American public television music program recorded live in Austin, Texas by Public Broadcasting Service Public television member station KLRU, and broadcast on many PBS stations around the United States...
. He was paired with Lisa Loeb for an evening of "acoustic ballads and electrified folk-rock numbers" during the show's 21st season.
Between 1997 and 2001, LaFave released another three albums on Bohemia Beat, including the 1999 double-CD Trail - a 15-year retrospective of bootlegs, live performances, radio performances and studio outtakes.
Woody Guthrie influence
LaFave says Woody Guthrie is his musical hero, and pays homage to his hero on Texoma with "Woody Guthrie", "a heartfelt and personal recollection of a song-smith who restlessly sought new horizons."In 1996, LaFave made an appearance at a tribute to Woody Guthrie held at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
, having been hand-picked to participate in the celebration by Guthrie’s daughter, Nora. The ten-day celebration, held in September 1996, included other notable musicians such as Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
, The Indigo Girls
Indigo Girls
The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
, Ellis Paul
Ellis Paul
Ellis Paul is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. Born in Aroostook County, Maine, Paul is a key figure in what has become known as the Boston school of songwriting, a literate, provocative and urbanely romantic folk-pop style that helped ignite the folk revival of the 1990s...
and Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...
. DiFranco's record label, Righteous Babe
Righteous Babe Records
Righteous Babe Records is an American independent record label. It was created by progressive folksinger Ani DiFranco in 1990 to release her own songs in lieu of being beholden to a mainstream record company.-History:...
, released a compilation of the event, Til We Outnumber 'Em, in 2000.
In July 1998, LaFave performed at the inaugural Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival is held annually in mid-July to commemorate the life and music of Woody Guthrie. The festival is held on the weekend closest to July 14 - the date of Guthrie's birth - in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. Daytime main stage performances are held indoors at the...
held in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. He has returned to Okemah for the festival every year since and in 2007 became a member of the Woody Guthrie Coalition - the organization behind the festival. Of the festival, LaFave said "...there's definitely something special going on in that scene. It's almost an American music festival secret. It's like beyond description....like, something is happening there that's literally changing the universe....it's rearranging the molecules of the planet...such really soulful musicians."
In 2003, LaFave produced a Woody Guthrie tribute show called Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway. The ensemble show toured around the country and included a rotating cast of singer-songwriters individually performing Guthrie's songs. Interspersed between songs were Guthrie's philosophical writings read by a narrator. In addition to LaFave, members of the rotating cast included Ellis Paul
Ellis Paul
Ellis Paul is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. Born in Aroostook County, Maine, Paul is a key figure in what has become known as the Boston school of songwriting, a literate, provocative and urbanely romantic folk-pop style that helped ignite the folk revival of the 1990s...
, Slaid Cleaves
Slaid Cleaves
Slaid Cleaves is a singer-songwriter born in Washington, D.C. and raised in South Berwick, Maine and Round Pond, Maine. An alumnus of Tufts University, where he majored in English and philosophy, Cleaves lives in Austin, Texas....
, Eliza Gilkyson
Eliza Gilkyson
Eliza Gilkyson is an Austin, Texas-based folk musician. She is the daughter of songwriter and folk musician Terry Gilkyson and Jane Gilkyson. She is the sister of guitarist Tony Gilkyson, who played with the Los Angeles-based bands Lone Justice and X...
, Joel Rafael
Joel Rafael
Joel Rafael is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician from San Diego County, California.Described as a natural interpreter of Woody Guthrie's lyrics and music, Woodyboye, Rafael's second volume to celebrate the songs of Woody Guthrie, was released on Appleseed in 2005. The first volume,...
, husband-wife duo Sarah Lee Guthrie
Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion
Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion are a musical duo....
(Woody Guthrie's granddaughter) and Johnny Irion
Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion
Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion are a musical duo....
, Michael Fracasso
Michael Fracasso
Michael Fracasso is a singer-songwriter based in Austin, Texas. His music spans country and rock as he sings in a high tenor that evokes the "high lonesome" sound of early country....
, and The Burns Sisters
The Burns Sisters
Folk, pop and rock are given a Celtic slant by Ithaca, New York-based vocalists the Burns Sisters. Accompanied by Rich DePaolo's guitar, Eric Aceto's fiddle and their own guitar and mandolin, the three sisters—Annie, Marie and Jeannie—harmonize with heartfelt spirit...
. The Godfather of Red Dirt Music Bob Childers
Bob Childers
Robert Wayne “Bob” Childers was an American country/folk singer-songwriter who has achieved widespread critical acclaim since the late 1970s. Childers was known alternately as the "father" "grandfather" or "godfather" of the regional scene known as Red Dirt music...
, also known as "the Dylan of the Dust," served as narrator. When word spread about the tour, performers began contacting LaFave, whose only prerequisite was to have an inspirational connection to Guthrie. Each artist chose the Guthrie songs that he or she would perform as part of the tribute. One of the songs Gilkyson chose was "Pastures of Plenty", while Cleaves chose "This Morning I Am Born Again" - a song he wrote using Guthrie's lyrics. One of the songs Paul chose was a song he wrote using Guthrie's lyrics - "God's Promise". LaFave said, "It works because all the performers are Guthrie enthusiasts in some form". The Ribbon of Highway tour kicked-off on February 5, 2003 at the Ryman Auditorium
Ryman Auditorium
The Ryman Auditorium is a 2,362-seat live performance venue, located at 115 5th Avenue North, in Nashville, Tennessee and is best known as the historic home of the Grand Ole Opry....
in Nashville. The abbreviated show was a featured segment of "Nashville Sings Woody," yet another tribute concert to commemorate the music of Woody Guthrie held during the Folk Alliance Conference. The cast of "Nashville Sings Woody," a benefit for the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives, also included Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
, Marty Stuart
Marty Stuart
John Martin "Marty" Stuart is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk, and traditional country music...
, Nanci Griffith
Nanci Griffith
Nanci Griffith, is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas.-Biography:...
, Guy Clark
Guy Clark
Guy Clark is an American Texas Country artist. In his career, he has released more than twenty albums, primarily on major labels. He has also written singles for other artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Rodney Crowell....
, Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Ramblin' Jack Elliott is an American folk singer and performer.-Life and career:Elliot Charles Adnopoz was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents in 1931. Elliott grew up inspired by the rodeos at Madison Square Garden, and wanted to be a cowboy...
, Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian is an American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction author. Ian first entered the folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-sixties; most active musically in that decade and the 1970s, she has continued recording into the 21st century...
, and others.
Red House Records
LaFave left Bohemia Beat when he was signed to Red House RecordsRed House Records
Red House Records is an American independent record label specializing in folk music and is based in St. Paul, Minnesota.The label was originally created in 1981 by Greg Brown as a method to distribute his own music, and is named for a farmhouse in Iowa where he was living...
and his first release on Red House was Blue Nightfall in 2005. In his review of Blue Nightfall for Freight Train Boogie, Bill Frater stated "This is his best work yet and if you don't know his work, a great introduction to an important artist." LaFave's second release for Red House was Cimarron Manifesto in 2007. On June 11, 2007 Cimarron Manifesto hit #1 on the Americana Music Association chart.
Music Road Records
In 2007, LaFave joined forces with recording engineer Fred Remmert and Dallas businessman Kelcy WarrenKelcy Warren
-Early life:He received a Bachelor of Science in Civil engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1978.-Career:He started his career by working for the Lone Star Gas Company. From 1981 to 1992, he worked for Endevco. He served as Executive Vice-President Cornerstone Natural Gas from...
to establish Music Road Records. Located in Austin, Texas, Music Road owns and operates two Texas-based recording facilities: Cedar Creek Recording in Austin and Cherokee Creek Recording in the Texas hill country. Favorites 1992-2001, a retrospective from LaFave's years on the Bohemia Beat label, was released by Music Road Records in 2010.
Also in 2007, at Nora Guthrie's invitation, LaFave spoke and performed at Woody Guthrie's induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
In his review of LaFave's Texoma for FAME David Schultz said, "LaFave's songs are reminiscient [sic] of the Dust Bowl heritage of Woody Guthrie, the early rock of Chuck Berry, the quiet folk reflections of Bob Dylan, and the rock anthems of Bruce Springsteen.""LaFave's music is not lubricated with advertising dollars or formulaic song structures. It's honest, thoughtful and sincere - like baseball and mom's homemade apple pie."
Discography
| Year | Title | Record Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Favorites 1992-2001 | Music Road Records |
| 2007 | Cimarron Manifesto Cimarron Manifesto Cimarron Manifesto is a 2007 album by red dirt singer-songwriter Jimmy LaFave. It is his second release for Red House Records. The album has been critically well-received and has appeared at or near the top of many folk/Americana oriented music charts.... |
Red House Records Red House Records Red House Records is an American independent record label specializing in folk music and is based in St. Paul, Minnesota.The label was originally created in 1981 by Greg Brown as a method to distribute his own music, and is named for a farmhouse in Iowa where he was living... |
| 2005 | Blue Nightfall | Red House Records |
| 2001 | Texoma | Bohemia Beat |
| 1999 | Trail | Bohemia Beat |
| 1997 | Road Novel | Bohemia Beat |
| 1995 | Burden To Bear | Munich Records EP |
| 1995 | Buffalo Return to the Plains | Bohemia Beat |
| 1994 | The Open Road (Highway Trance) | Munich Records EP |
| 1994 | Highway Trance | Bohemia Beat |
| 1992 | Austin Skyline | Bohemia Beat |
| 1988 | Highway Angels...Full Moon Rain | Independent |
| 1981 | Broken Line | Snowbound |
| 1979 | Down Under | Snowbound |