Biography
A cherished performer on screen and a dedicated player of blues, Jim Byrnes discovered his twin passions for stage work and music while still very young. During his university years steady acting opportunities came his way until military conscription redirected him toward combat rather than a screen career in Hollywood. He clung to his ambitions throughout the conflict and resumed pursuit of those ambitions once his service concluded. A later automobile collision again suspended his screen prospects, prompting him to devote his energies entirely to music. Across subsequent decades he issued multiple recordings while gradually reclaiming roles in both cinema and television. Recognition arrived in 1995 with induction into the British Columbia Entertainment Hall of Fame.
James Thomas Kevin Byrnes entered the world in St. Louis, Missouri, during 1948. Piano instruction began for him at age five. An early illness threatened both his developing musical abilities and his survival itself. By high-school age he had acquired guitar skills through self-teaching and had simultaneously developed an interest in acting that led to drama classes continuing into his college years. Conscription for the Vietnam War interrupted those pursuits near the close of the 1960s.
Near 1970 he relocated to Toronto, Canada, and renewed his efforts in both fields. Another severe car accident soon removed nearly all prospect of acting work, so he channeled his focus into music, securing performances with various ensembles on tours that crossed Canada and reached the United States. Before the decade closed he assembled his own ensemble, the Jim Byrnes Band. With that group he captured his first album, Burning, issued by Polydor Records in 1981. The following year brought his initial major music-industry recognition in the form of a Juno Awards nomination for Most Promising Male Vocalist.
His second album, I Turned My Nights into Days, reached listeners only in 1987. That same year he obtained his first continuing television part on the series Wiseguy, a role he held for almost four years. Additional guest appearances on other programs and occasional film work followed. In 1993 he was chosen to portray Joe Dawson in the Highlander television series and subsequently in its spin-off The Raven. The visibility gained from Highlander enabled the recording of a third album, That River, released by Stony Plain Records in 1995. Three years later Stony Plain combined the two preceding albums into a single compact-disc collection. After issuing Love Is a Gamble through One Coyote Music in 2001, he moved to Black Hen Music in 2004. Fresh Horses appeared that year, initiating a sequence of releases for the label that reached seven albums with the arrival of Long Hot Summer Nights in 2017.
James Thomas Kevin Byrnes entered the world in St. Louis, Missouri, during 1948. Piano instruction began for him at age five. An early illness threatened both his developing musical abilities and his survival itself. By high-school age he had acquired guitar skills through self-teaching and had simultaneously developed an interest in acting that led to drama classes continuing into his college years. Conscription for the Vietnam War interrupted those pursuits near the close of the 1960s.
Near 1970 he relocated to Toronto, Canada, and renewed his efforts in both fields. Another severe car accident soon removed nearly all prospect of acting work, so he channeled his focus into music, securing performances with various ensembles on tours that crossed Canada and reached the United States. Before the decade closed he assembled his own ensemble, the Jim Byrnes Band. With that group he captured his first album, Burning, issued by Polydor Records in 1981. The following year brought his initial major music-industry recognition in the form of a Juno Awards nomination for Most Promising Male Vocalist.
His second album, I Turned My Nights into Days, reached listeners only in 1987. That same year he obtained his first continuing television part on the series Wiseguy, a role he held for almost four years. Additional guest appearances on other programs and occasional film work followed. In 1993 he was chosen to portray Joe Dawson in the Highlander television series and subsequently in its spin-off The Raven. The visibility gained from Highlander enabled the recording of a third album, That River, released by Stony Plain Records in 1995. Three years later Stony Plain combined the two preceding albums into a single compact-disc collection. After issuing Love Is a Gamble through One Coyote Music in 2001, he moved to Black Hen Music in 2004. Fresh Horses appeared that year, initiating a sequence of releases for the label that reached seven albums with the arrival of Long Hot Summer Nights in 2017.
Albums
