Uncle Jimmy Thompson (1848 to 1931) was the first performer on the WSM radio program that became the Grand Ole Opry. On November 28, 1925, at age 77, he played fiddle for an hour on the air with George D. Hay announcing, and country radio was born. He had won eight-day fiddle contests in Dallas in 1907 and 1923, claimed to know more than a thousand tunes, and cut a handful of records in 1926 and 1930 that show what a 19th century Tennessee fiddler sounded like.
Why Thompson matters
Thompson is the reason the Opry started with a fiddle. He was a contest fiddler before there were contest circuits, and his Dallas ribbons tie the Tennessee and Texas traditions together in one man. His few recordings are the oldest window we have on the fiddling that bluegrass grew from. When he told Hay that a man does not get warmed up in an hour, he set the tone for every long fiddle set since.
Life and career
Thompson was born on January 1, 1848, in Smith County, Tennessee. His family moved to Texas around 1860, and he spent much of his adult life there. In 1907 he won an eight-day fiddle contest in Dallas and moved back to Tennessee, settling near Hendersonville. After his first wife died he married Ella Manners around 1912, and in 1916 the couple moved to Laguardo in Wilson County, where he lived the rest of his life. Manners was a buck dancer.
In 1923 he went back to Dallas and won the eight-day contest again. His niece Eva Thompson Jones, a pianist, recommended him to WSM in Nashville, and on November 28, 1925, he took the microphone at 8 p.m. with the blue ribbon from Dallas on display. Hay asked if he had played enough after an hour, and Thompson answered that a man does not get warmed up in an hour. The show became the Grand Ole Opry.
On January 19, 1926, he won the Tennessee state finals of a fiddle contest at the Ryman Auditorium, though he did not place in the regional finals in Louisville. On November 1, 1926, he recorded Billy Wilson and Karo for Columbia in Atlanta with Jones on piano. Columbia issued them as 15118-D. He appeared on the Opry through 1927, but as Hay gave the show a tighter structure his appearances fell off, and by 1928 he was on the program only twice.
On April 5, 1930, he recorded for Vocalion in Knoxville. That session produced Lynchburg and Uncle Jimmy’s Favorite Fiddlin’ Pieces, a medley that includes Flying Clouds and Leather Britches. Bear Family reissued those sides in 2016 in the box set The Knoxville Sessions, 1929 to 1930. Thompson died of pneumonia at Laguardo on February 17, 1931, at age 83.
Playing style
Thompson’s records are the only proof of how he played, and there are only a few of them. On the 1926 Columbia sides his niece Eva Thompson Jones backs him on piano, so the fiddle carries the melody alone while the piano holds the chords and the beat. The 1930 Vocalion session caught him in a different setting. Uncle Jimmy’s Favorite Fiddlin’ Pieces is a medley, with Flying Clouds and Leather Britches run together the way a dance fiddler strings tunes to keep a floor moving. He claimed a repertoire of more than a thousand tunes, and he boasted that he could fiddle the bugs off a tater vine. Wikipedia’s summary of scholarship on the last recordings credits him with great ability even at 82.
Influences and legacy
Thompson learned in Tennessee and Texas before recorded music existed, so his sources are lost. His legacy is the Opry itself. Fiddlers who followed him on WSM include Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith and Roy Acuff. His Dallas contest wins put him in the same lineage as Eck Robertson, who made the first commercial country record in 1922. In Georgia, Fiddlin’ John Carson and Gid Tanner were building the same kind of radio and record career at the same time.
Signature tunes and songs
Karo Billy Wilson Lynchburg Flying Clouds Leather Britches.
Essential recordings
Billy Wilson / Karo (Columbia, 1927) The Knoxville Sessions, 1929 to 1930: Knox County Stomp, various artists (Bear Family, 2016)
Awards and honors
Dallas eight-day fiddle contest, first prize (1907) Dallas eight-day fiddle contest, first prize (1923) Tennessee state fiddle finals, Ryman Auditorium (1926)
Watch and listen
The 1926 Columbia recording of Karo, with Eva Thompson Jones on piano. Listen for the steady dance tempo and the piano holding the chords under the fiddle.
What to learn from Thompson
Learn Karo from the 1926 record. It is short, it repeats, and it was made for dancing, so it teaches you to hold a tempo with no band behind you but a chording instrument. The technique to steal is the medley. On his 1930 session he ran Flying Clouds into Leather Britches without stopping. Pick two tunes in the same key, find the bar where one ends and the other can start, and practice the switch until nobody at the jam can hear the seam. That is how a dance fiddler kept a floor moving in 1925 and it still works at a jam today.
Sources
Uncle Jimmy Thompson, Wikipedia Uncle Jimmie Thompson, Billy Wilson / Karo, Discogs The Knoxville Sessions, 1929-1930: Knox County Stomp, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more old-time pioneers. Fiddlin’ John Carson and Eck Robertson made the first country records while Thompson was still competing. Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith and Roy Acuff carried the Opry fiddle forward after him.