Over the years Jimmie Stagger has been known to a select few as a guitar slinger who can hold the stage with any of today’s guitar heroes, and mop the stage with many more, but all in all that’s not what the soft spoken man is about. “‘Blues isn’t about that, it’s a feeling down deep in your heart,” says Stagger. “‘Some people say that playing this music is simple, just 12 bars. True, the basic format is 12 bars, but if you can’t feel the spirit and history of the music, it isn’t blues, it’s just 12 bars.”
Jimmie has been influenced by many of the great bluesmen over the years, but the great slide player Bukka White was so impressed with bottle neck work of the eighteen year-old Jimmie Stagger that White proclaimed, “Young man, you have crossed the ocean, an you can play my songs any time.” That started a friendship that would last until Bukka White died in 1977. Jimmie has shared licks with many contemporary blues artists as well, including Donald Kinsey, Johnny Winter, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds.
“With a big, rich voice reminiscent of Jimmy Thackery… Stagger is a compelling storyteller who makes you feel his pain and share his joy.”
-Mark Smith, Blues Review Magazine
“Hell of a slide player”
-Johnny Winter
“Now that’s the way it’s to be done!”
-Bo Diddley
Jimmie Stagger Recordings:
Cruel Hearted Papa
The Triumphant Return of Slim Jim