ROOTS of Country Music

The professional Work of Jimmy Capps 

Jimmy Capps has played and recorded with so many great artists that trying to list them all might easily fill this description area. For the last 51 years the sound of his guitar playing has graced the stage of the Grand Ole Opry.

Since 1959 his playing can be heard on scores of hit country records from classic by George Jones, Kenny Rogers, George Straits, Moe Bandy, Oak Ridge Boys, John Conlee, Joe Stampley, Billie Joe Spears, Johnny Paycheck, Janie Fricke and all of Ronnie Milsap's recordings through 1988. 

Born on 1939 in Fayetteville,North Carolina (NC) to Alice and Tommy Capps and raised in Benson,NC, Capps listened to the Grand Ole Opry since he was eight years old. Jimmy Capps was inspired by his champion fiddle-playing uncle, Lynn Cook and local guitarist Hayden Ivey. Capps started playing guitar at age twelve begin performing on local radio shows at age twenty-one.

Capps sang and played onWCKB-Dunn, NC and in 1956 he worked in both radio and TV inFlorence,South Carolinawith a performer named Slim Mims. Capps moved on toWilsonto work with Slim Short and Jimmy Capps played local clubs in Benson in a band called The Tar Heels. 

An audition in 1958 changed Capps' life forever when he became the guitar player for The Louvin Brothers. He took over that job when their current guitar player, Paul Yandell, was drafted into the US Army. During his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry, Capps backed the Louvin Brothers on The Knoxville Girl. That was the fall of 1958 and since 1967 Capps spent decades backing artists on that stage as a member of the Grand Ole Opry Staff Band. 

Capps' recording ventures demonstrate not only his allegiance to quality country but his ability to stay in demand among new performers in the genre; he has cut with Alan Jackson as well as Ernest Tubb, for example. The recordings of Kenny Rogers are certainly among the best-selling to feature Capps, usually playing in tandem with the likes of Ray Edenton.

Jimmy Capps has produced albums on artists such as The Wilburn Brothers, Jan Howard, Jim & Jesse, Roy Drusky, David Houston and Stu Phillips, to name a few. Capps also played guitar with Ray Charles, Dean Martin, JJ Cale, Julie Andrews and Andy Williams, so make no mistake about it, Capp’s guitar playing crosses many musical boundaries.

As one of Country Music's finest guitar players, Jimmy Capps is a 'master of smoothness'. He is known in the studio for his ability to move flawlessly from electric to acoustic with a polished and refined touch that he brings to every recording or performance he is part of. Capp has owned several guitars, including a hybrid 1957 Fender Stratocaster. 

In 2001 Jimmy Capps was voted by his peers to be awarded the Reunion of Professional Entertainers prestigious Musician of The Year Award. On February 25, 2009, Benson Mayor William W. Massengill honored Capps proclaiming that date as Jimmy Capps Day to a sold-out crowd at a concert celebrating Capps' fifty years on the Grand Ole Opry.

Jimmy Capps, Studio Session Work, Partial Listing:

• After All These Years ~ Barbara Mandrell
• AmarilloBy Morning ~George Strait
• Bandy The Rodeo Clown ~ Moe Bandy
• Blanket On The Ground ~ Billie Jo Spears
• Brown-Eyed Handsome Man ~ Waylon Jennings
• Busted ~ John Conlee
• Coward of the County ~ Kenny Rogers
• Daydreams About Night Things ~Ronnie Milsap
• Be Angry ~ Donna Fargo
• Don't Call Him A Cowboy ~ConwayTwitty
• Elvira ~Oak RidgeBoys
• Fool Hearted Memory ~ George Strait
• He Stopped Loving Her Today ~ George Jones
• Here I Am Again ~Loretta LOynn
• Here In The Real World ~ Alan Jackson
• Honky Tonk Blues ~ Charley pride
• How Blue ~ Reba McEntire
• How's The World Treating You ~Louvin Brothers
• I Don't Know A Thing About Love ~ConwayTwitty
• I Just Started Hatin' Cheatin' Songs Today ~Moe Bandy
• I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool ~Barbara Mandrell
• I’d Be a Legend In My Time ~ Ronnie Milsap
• Lost In The Feeling ~ConwayTwitty
• Near You ~ George Jones and Tammy Wynette
• Red Neckin' Love Makin' Night ~ConwayTwitty
• Run Along Blues ~ Don Gibson
• Sail Away ~ Oak Ridge Boys
• Sleeping Single In A Double Bed ~ Barbara Mandrell
• Somebody's Knockin' ~ Terry Gibbs
• Some Days Are Diamonds ~ John Denver
• SmokeyMountainRain ~ Ronnie Milsap
• Stand By Your Man ~Tammy Wynette
• The Gambler ~ Kenny Rogers
• The Rose ~ConwayTwitty
• Unwound ~GeorgeStrait
• What I've Got In Mind ~ Billie Jo Spears
• What Would Your Memory Do ~ George Strait
• 16th Avenue ~ Lacy J. Dalton

Jimmy Capps Studio Sessions

Don Gibson Recording Session

Apr. 3, 1967 

RCA Victor Studio; 806 17 Ave. South, Nashville, Tennessee  

Producers: Chester B. Atkins 

Session Personnel: Don Gibson (vocal, leader), Jimmy Capps (guitar), Jerry Reed Hubbard (rhythm guitar), Thomas Grady Martin (electric guitar), Loyd Green (steel guitar), Roy Huskey Jr. (bass guitar), Jerry Carrigan, James Isbel (drums), Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano), The Joaranaires (Hoyt H. Hawkins, Neal matthews Jr., Hugh Gordon Stoker, Raymond C. Walker) vocal chorus

• Just to Hurt Me
• Losing Your Love
• The Chance I Had to Take
• Run Along Blues  

Loretta Lynn Recording Session

Apr 26, 1972 

Bradley's Barn; Mt. Juliet, Tennessee USA 

Producer: Owen Bradley 

Session Personnel: Loretta Lynn, Jordanaires (vocals), Harold Bradley (6-stribg electric bass guitar), James D. Capps (acoustic guitar), Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano), Bob Moore (bass guitar), Harold Rugg (steel guitar), Thomas Grady Martin (electric guitar) 

1. Here I Am Again

Researched, compiled and written by Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music, Dec. 2, 2011.