Jimmy Ford "Harlan County" (1969/2011)
"Jimmy Ford is the baddest white man on the planet.” Sly Stone
"Jimmy was a beautiful cat, one of the most creative people that I’ve ever met.” Bobby Womack
Here’s how it went down: Jim Ford, a musically minded country boy from rural Kentucky heads to the Golden State with dreams of making it. Making the scene in Los Angeles, he befriends and writes songs for such artists as Bobby Womack ("Harry Hippie”), Aretha Franklin, P.J. Proby, The Temptations, and even appears on Sly & the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On. He eventually hooks up with legendary session players Dr. John, Jim Keltner (John Lennon), and James Burton (Elvis Presley) and books into the equally legendary Wally Heider Recording Studios to cut an album of blue-eyed country-funk and soul. The year is 1969.
What came next was a series of missed opportunities, burned bridges, and a few decades lost to drug abuse. And what’s left? Harlan County
Released in 1969 on the minor label Sundown Records, Harlan County simply fell through the cracks between monster selling titles by The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Despite being allied with some of the biggest names in the business and a deft musical touch, Ford never struck gold as a solo artist and eventually left the often cutthroat music business for a quieter life at the turn of the 1980’s.
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