Jim Rooney
Musician · b. 1938
Best known for
Guitar
Jim Rooney is an American musician, record producer, and author, a longtime figure in the folk-revival and Nashville roots-music scenes.
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- Born in 1938 in Boston, Massachusetts, he formed a long musical partnership with the banjo player Bill Keith as the duo Keith and Rooney.
- Managed the Cambridge folk club Club 47 and helped run the Newport Folk Festival.
- Moved to Nashville in 1976 and became a record producer, working on albums by Nanci Griffith and Iris DeMent.
- Co-wrote (with Eric von Schmidt) the folk-scene history "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: The Illustrated Story of the Cambridge Folk Years" and wrote “Bossmen,” a study of Bill Monroe and Muddy Waters.
- Won a Grammy Award as a producer and received an IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award.
