Jim Coffman-mandolin, fiddle, guitar, bass guitar, vocals
Influences
To name but a few: Beethoven, Bill Monroe, Beatles, Bird, John Hartford, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Yes, Gentle Giant, Dixie Dregs, Allman Brothers, Newgrass Revival, Sam Bush, David Grisman, Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, Jethro Burns, Joe Pass, Jimi Hendrix, Seals and Crofts, Jesus Christ Superstar, John 'JC' Cutler, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Mike Schwartzburg, Reid Fisher, Pete Mathison, David Smith, Ken Sherman, Mike Wollenberg, Leo Lorenzoni, Curt Stager, Doug Karger, Fred Boyce, Zan McLeod, Vassar Clements, Mark Graham, Django Reinhardt, Stephan Grappelli, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Skyline, Tim Ware, Mike Marshall, Jeff Marshall, Phil Small, Mews Small, Raymond Pitts, Curtis Robertson Jr, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, George Carlin, George Orwell, Mark Twain, Wendell Berry....
I was born in Virginia and raised in Kentucky; and as the song says, "I've been all 'round this world". I began my musical journey as an infant, when my mom would pacify me with recordings of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak as I rocked on the living room couch. I took up trombone in the fourth grade, and played in school bands and orchestras through college. My dad, himself a trombone and banjo player, was always playing records of Bill Monroe and Flatt and Scruggs, which got me into bluegrass. My parents gave me my first mandolin on my 15th birthday. That same year (1974) my family moved to Zurich, Switzerland, where for two years I attended high school, played trombone in a community wind ensemble and in a touring stage band, and wrote songs with JC, a duo of myself on mandolin and John Cutler on guitar. I spent senior year in Toronto, then moved to Northfield, Minnesota to attend Carleton College, where I played the Cave with JC in the band Palma, and with Good Grass and later the Rivertown Ramblers, with whom I continued gigging after graduating in 1981. In 1984 I entered graduate school in Zoology at Duke in Durham NC, where I co-founded the Laughing Crinoids. I spent the 1990s in Los Angeles, performing electric country with the Livin' Free Band and cabaret with Mews Small and the Small Band, and the first five years of the millenium in Kansas City, where I occasionally gigged with the Pig Roast Band, Billy and the Beerbellies, and Dave and the Pickups. In 2005 I came to reside on the downeast coast of Maine. These days I mostly play with Banned from Eden (rock) and Blue Northern (bluegrass). The recordings on this page are from my self-produced albums of original music: Overloaded Circus (volumes 1-3), Existential Opera, and A Treasure-trove of Trash.
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