James "Jamie" Dickinson was born
in Seattle on  May 31, 1957. He was
"0" years old. Raised in the Beacon
Hill area until later moving to the
Magnolia area at age 8, Jamie's first
musical influence was KJR, Seattle,
channel 95 on the AM dial and not
knowing any better, thought that the
Beatles lived inside of the vacuum
tubes of the radio.

Jamie's musical ability was inherited
from his Grandfather on his Mothers
side of the family. Grandpa played
Drums, Saxophone, Clarinet,
Harmonica and was also a Big Band
leader in the 1920's.

While in the fourth grade Jamie was
administered the "Seashore Test" by
the Seattle public school system and
it was discovered that he had the
ability to accurately identify numerous
sounds, tones and instruments. He was
encouraged to learn trumpet or violin,
however to the chagrin of all, he chose
the drums. (KJR played a lot of Rolling
Stones, and this was turning young
James into a little rowdy). So every
day, he lugged  a Ludwig snare drum
home  from school and retreated to the
basement where, using a wooden toy
box for a floor tom and cooking pot
covers for cymbals, proceeded to
disturb the neighborhood by playing
along to Herman's Hermit records.

All of that changed in the  fifth grade
when his cousin introduced him to the
debut records of Hendrix, Clapton and
Beck all in the space of a few months.
The audio overload was too much, and
Jamie started bugging his Mom for a
guitar and he has been attempting to
play one ever since. The discipline of
proper lessons didn't sit well, so a lot of
vinyl records were scratched up along
the way trying to figure out guitar notes.

"I regret not learning the piano or violin
early on" says Jamie. "I could have
avoided going to North Seattle
Community College later, when it was
time to take some music theory classes
and get things figured out".

Jamie has been in numerous rock bands,
but it wasn't until recently that he started
 noodling around with country guitar.
"Rock is a piece of cake compared to
country. With country, you have to use
banjo techniques, finger picking, claw
hammer pickin', chicken pickin', bending,
sliding and twangin'.......it's tough stuff."
 

So how did Jamie wind up in the
Northwest's premiere Country/Rock
band? "I was having lunch at the Philly
House and just happened to see an ad  in
the Post Intelligencer. I answered it, and
next thing I knew, I was making a record
and learning a hundred songs. Great thing,
that luck 'o' the Irish".

Although Jamie isn't a "real" cowboy,
he once hopped a freight train while in his
teens. "I was aiming to go from Seattle
to Mukilteo but I wound up in Whitefish,
Montana. I know that doesn't involve
ropin' and ridin' but that's something
Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson would have
done, and that's country enough for me!"

 In addition to playing music,  Jamie is an
aircraft mechanic and likes to fly his
airplane to get around the Pacific
Northwest. "Looking down at all that
traffic is better than being in it!"