Jim's soul fulfilling bliss - and escape! - has always been his guitar.

 
Jim got an early start at performing, he sang as a soloist in his first music festival at age 6.  He was given his first guitar at age 10. Over the years Jim developed his own finger picking style which continues to lay the foundation for his overall body of work.

Jim has enjoyed many successes and endured hundreds more hard knocks. He is a seasoned performer -- from singing in a grocery store to playing big concert theatres during his band haydays -- sharing the stage with Kenny Rogers, BJ Thomas and Tommy James & the Shondells (if you're old enough to remember those guys!). Jim morphed as a songwriter from rock/pop to folk/roots, accumulating songwriting and performing awards and accolades on both sides of the border along the way. 

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Over the past two decades, Jim has created a dynamic concert performance based on the massive societal and cultural changes of the late 1800's called Farewell To The Frontier.  It's a 2 hour performance that renews awareness of the way-of-life changes all peoples experienced in the chronological evolution of the Canadian West. It's 100% Jim's original songwriting. His performance is a combination of entertainment, personality, songwriting, musicianship, and historical enlightenment. Of course - as a songwriter - Jim is afforded a small degree of poetic and artistic license here and there!  : -)

 

Jim's passion as a "keeper" of western heritage is genetic.  His great great grandfather, Joseph Reader, was a Missionary in the NorthWest Territories who was a witness to Treaty #4 in 1875 at Fort Qu'Appelle (SK). So it's easy to see why Jim's focus is around this era of rapid development with legendary characters.

 

Jim's performances are enhanced with a visual component.  Over the years he has researched the perfect photos, artwork and graphics that synchronize seamlessly with all song lyrics.  The result is that audiences hear the wind, smell the sage and taste the trail-dust in their adventure through the old and new West.

 
Jim and Marion are retired with five adult children closeby, a growing tribe of grandkids, and live at the foot of Alberta's magnificent Canadian Rocky Mountains.