Jim’s parents always had a piano in the house when he was growing up so he began fooling around on the piano at an early age.  His dad had several guitars and showed him a few chords when he was about 10 years old. Then Jim discovered a chord chart in the front of a song book and was off and running!  He began learning songs by ear and discovered that he had perfect pitch.  Jim always loved loud, powerful things so he was ecstatic when his dad got him his first electric guitar!  He began playing guitar in garage bands in junior high and continued on into early adulthood.  Disappointed at never playing any real gigs, Jim sold his electric guitar equipment and decided to begin training as a piano tuner-technician.  Then, when he moved to Sacramento California, the music world suddenly opened up for him.  Jim ended up quitting his day job so that he could pursue playing music as a full-time career.  He began playing bass in 1978 and played professionally in various bands for almost 12 years.

In the mid to late 80's, Jim began traveling with a road band.  After several years of solid road work, he began to reconsider his options.  He finally quit the road band he was working with and joined a local band at home.  This did not pay the bills so he got a civil service job and continued to play music on the weekends.  But that day job soon became a night job and he had to quit playing music completely.  That job dominated his life for 9 years but he did not want to continue working there so he went to tech school to learn about computers.  In a huge leap of faith, he quit his stable, established life in California and moved to Seattle in the hopes of getting a computer job and a new life.  He also intended to start playing music again but this time his focus would be different:  Being previously motivated by the fact that he must make a living as a musician made him choose a band according to how consistently they worked and with less regard to the type or quality of music played.  This time, Jim could choose to play in a band just for the love of the music but he was very disappointed with the music that most bands offered until he discovered Bridget St. John’s music.  He was impressed by her songs and the production on her debut album so he decided to audition as a guitarist.  In a short time, her bassist left and Jim became the bassist for Bridget's new band, Sweet Punch.

After about two years and one CD later, the three memebers of Sweet Punch went their separate ways and Bridget continued on as a solo act.  Jim found some guys around his age who like the same kind of music that he does and began rehearsing with them.  They were Jim Vavra, Bob Sparks and Tom Soderquist and they called themselves the Underwires.  After about a year, Jim Vavra left the band but the three remaining members continued working together.  They joked about calling themselves "Funnel Farts" which is what it sounds like you are saying if you say, "fun old farts!" They considered adding another band member so Tom invited Steve Beck, an old friend of his to jam with us.  This led to Jim leaving the fun old farts and joining the band that Steve was in called Boomerang.  Through Steve, Jim became acquainted with even more musicians in the area, including Mark Baker.  Jim continues to play in Boomerang and still gets together to play music with Bob Sparks in Mark Baker's band, Justyn Case.  Steve Beck and Pete Tomack got together to form Flannel Asparagus.  Most recently, Bob Sparks and Jim both joined with Steve and Pete to work on a Flannel Asparagus CD.