Jimmy Crawford

Jimmy Crawford launched his mastery of the pedal steel at the age of four under the guidance of his father Eugene Crawford and his uncle Garland Crawford, whose duet enjoyed a substantial regional audience around Columbus. Once the boy had mastered five or six chords on the mandolin and could deliver a convincing “Jesus Loves Me,” still at four and after less than a year of study, the pair routinely pulled him from bed to perform on their 5:30 a.m. radio program. The initial pedal-steel sounds that reached him came from Jerry Byrd, an encounter that fixed his lifelong commitment to the instrument; he spent subsequent years replicating those recordings. By the time he turned ten he was already devising harmony lines and, as he later recounted in his memoirs, absorbing every disc he could obtain. Buck Owens became the first major country figure he accompanied. Another Columbus contemporary, then performing as Donny Lytle, would soon be known as Johnny Paycheck; the two joined George Jones’s band concurrently and helped shape its driving, rocking brand of country, a style that fully merited the label “honky tonk” wherever a crying pedal steel was featured. Crawford’s growing fascination with Western swing and its paired steel guitars further deepened his pursuit of harmonic interplay. He next teamed with Bob Gallion, Bill Tustin, and Woody Woodham at the Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia, where the group attracted the attention of Western film cowboy and singer Jimmy Walker. Walker signed the musicians to his MGM contract. Among the band’s youthful followers was six-year-old Lenny Breau, whose parents also appeared at the Jamboree; the youngster received early guitar lessons from Crawford. The ensemble later served as staff band at WWVA, collaborating with Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper. After banjoist John Clark joined, the group adopted the name Clinch Mountain Clan and accompanied Cooper and Edwards to the Grand Ole Opry in 1957. Crawford remained in Nashville thereafter, working with Cowboy Copas, his former employer Jones, Hank Snow, and the Rainbow Ranch Boys alongside fiddler Buddy Spicher. A two-year stint with Faron Young ended just as that singer’s career entered a lull. Session opportunities in Nashville began to contract, prompting Crawford to step away from performance for a time before returning to Ferlin Husky. He subsequently spent nearly seven years with Johnny Wright and Kitty Wells, an interval that ended his appetite for the road. Preferring studio work, he contributed warmly glowing solos to landmark albums by Dolly Parton, Chet Atkins, Ray Griff, and numerous others. He also explored bluegrass and acoustic Dobro on sessions with the Osborne Brothers, most memorably their rendition of “Lost Highway.” Succeeding steel virtuoso Hal Rugg, he backed country goddess Loretta Lynn and later recorded with Slim Whitman and Radney Foster on projects produced by fellow pedal-steel player Pete Drake. Crawford’s own instrumental compositions have been interpreted by Lloyd Green, Doug Jernigan, Chet Atkins, and additional artists. Devotees of gospel pedal steel likewise know his series of widely acclaimed collections in that vein. Like many colleagues, he has contributed to the instrument’s design and technical refinement.