EVANS and FRIENDS, JIM

Homebase: 29505 188 Avenue SE, Kent, WA. / Morton Lake, WA.
Stats: 1922-2020
Misc Notes: [Adapted from Jim Evans' Eulogy] "Jim Evans father was sharecrop cotton farmer whose family lived at Frost, Texas, from 1920-1922, but their house burnt down in March, so they moved to between Venus and Maypearl and Jim was born July 5, 1922, at Maypearl -- the 10th of 11 children. His mother died from blood poisoning due to complications with childbirth when Jim was two. He didn’t even have a name for about two years, then he was called Jim, not James nor did he have a middle name.

If there was one constant in Jim’s life, it was the fiddle. He was determined to learn to play it. Aaron, his older brother, got him one from a seed company that was given to anyone who sold forty-eight 10¢ packs of garden seed. Jim said; "It was practically an impossibility to get any decent sound out of it, but it did get the fingering going. There was no bow, so he used a willow twig with sewing thread for hair. About two years later, his sister Lucy searched out their father's old fiddle, a good French one. Whenever he could, Jim went to see Homer Stookesberry, “an old Tennessee fiddler.” They usually got together on Sunday, the only day they were both free from farm work.

The house had no electricity, so there was no radio, but a friend helped him build a crystal set with an old cigar box. They used an old Model-T coil, some telephone wire for the antenna, a 25¢ crystal, and $1. headphones. Jim was able to pick up the Grand Ole Opry and learned the tunes coming over the airwaves.

Jim won his first contest at age twelve, the prize was $10. which was a lot in those days, equivalent to ten days work on the farm. By his early teens, Jim was playing for high school barn dances. At the time, Bob Wills was one of the most popular bandleaders in the country. Jim and some older friends would travel, in an old Model-T Ford, the 150 miles to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to hear Bob and his Texas Playboys play.

On August 7, 1942, the invasion of Guadalcanal began. It was also the day that Jim and his nephew Aaron "Doc" Evans, joined the US Navy together. He had left his fiddle at home, afraid that it would get damaged, but once it was known that he could play, a one was found. With some other musicians, he entertained a crowded troop ship on the slow journey to Hawaii. It was wartime, and the enemy attacked. Jim was blinded in one eye by shrapnel. Jim was sent to Sand Point Naval Hospital in Seattle. In time he met a coffee-shop gal named Isabelle Balovich and six weeks later they married on March 11, 1943.

A neighbor who Jim played music with, introduced him to Buck Ritchie, a local DJ with a four-hour live music program on KVI radio, Tacoma. Buck had Jim play a few tunes for him, then said: “You're on next.” For the next ten years, Jim played regularly over the radio waves.

Jim played with gospel music with a group from 1962-1972. They played at churches, and mission groups and on the radio. In 1972 he joined the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association, and soon was organizing shows and contests. He continued to play wherever and whenever the opportunity presented itself, appearing on local radio and television and playing at weddings and some dances. Through most of the eighties, he played with a band called The Good Time Fiddlers. With their covered wagon and three fiddlers, they were popular at local events, including Seattle's Torchlight Parade. In the early eighties he cut two LPs with his favorite back-up musicians. He has been a regular at the Northwest Folk Life Festival."

Isabelle passed away on August 10, 2015, while Jim lived another four years and died in his sleep January 13, 2020.

NOTE: There is another different Jim Evans on this site.

Also See:
1.) COVINGTON GRASS BAND

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