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Jimmy Redden
Chattanooga TN
Jimmy Redden was born into a
musical family in a small town called Soddy Daisy in Tennessee. He grew up
listening to his dad, his uncles, and his grandfather play music every Sunday,
so it was only a matter of time until he would have an instrument in his hands.
At the age of 10, he took an interest in the banjo and started taking a few
lessons but they only lasted a few months. Then he spent a lot of time listening
to Earl Scruggs, JD Crowe,
and others and playing along with records everyday
and developing his own style of playing. He has played with numerous local and
regional bands and that's where he got his first taste of traveling long
distances to play for festivals and venues out of his home state while opening
for such bluegrass greats as Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Jim and Jesse, JD
Crowe, David Parmley and Continental Divide, and many others.
In September of 2004, he joined the family based bluegrass
band of Fisher and Company that were based out of Georgia. He got to travel a
lot more with them and play at some of the festivals that he had only dreamed of
playing like Bean Blossom, Indiana. In January of 2005, he received a call from
Ray Deaton asking him to fill in for Steve Dilling of IIIrd Tyme Out for 3
months while Steve was recovering from hand surgery. He jumped at the
opportunity and in March of 2005, another dream came true when he played on the
stage of the Ryman Auditorium at the Grand Ole Opry.
When Steve was fully recovered, he went back with Anita Fisher
and helped re-form the band into the Anita Fisher Band. Later on, this would be
changed to the Anita Fisher Band with Ray Deaton and he helped to record a
gospel CD that was nominated for a Grammy. He stayed with that band until May of
2008 when he started playing the banjo with the Kati Penn Band. He stayed with
them about a year and decided that he would like to take a break from music for
a while. Although it was a short break, and before he knew it he was right back
with the Anita Fisher Band with Ray Deaton again. Then he helped Ray to form Ray
Deaton and Grasstic Measures in early 2010. They are currently working on their
first project and starting to book some dates for this year and beyond.
Jimmy feels blessed and fortunate to have met some of the
finest people playing the music that he loves to play. He has helped to give
workshops at Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp, he has traveled all over the United
States and Canada playing festivals and concerts. He has received
compliments from some of his bluegrass musical heroes like JD Crowe, Ray Deaton,
Doyle Lawson, Russell Moore, Steve Dilling, and others. He has won the only 2
banjo contests that he has ever entered, but likes to think of himself as more
of a band banjo player than a contest player.
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