The Time Jumpers

In 1998, Nashville-based session vocalists and instrumentalists assembled to launch the Time Jumpers, an energetic Western swing ensemble. At the outset the collective operated casually with a small and constantly shifting roster. Its earliest configuration, assembled strictly for enjoyment inside a garage, included Hoot Hester, Michael Blaustone, Dennis Crouch, and Danny Parks. The first public performance brought Hester and Crouch together with Andy Reiss, Aubrey Haynie, Kenny Malone, Johnny Cox, and Robert Bowlin. Appearances remained sporadic until the musicians established an informal residency at the Station Inn that settled into roughly two shows each month. Additional impromptu sets took shape in Grand Ole Opry dressing rooms whenever the group waited to accompany other performers. Once Station Inn engagements moved to a weekly schedule, Rick Vanaugh replaced Malone on drums and Kenny Sears took over for Bowlin, while Jeff Taylor simultaneously joined the lineup; Haynie departed shortly afterward. Adie Grey also sang with the band for a period. The album On the Air showcases Hester and Sears handling vocals and fiddle, Cox on steel guitar, Crouch on bass, Reiss on guitar, Taylor on vocals and accordion, and Vanaugh on drums. Carolyn Martin and the late Dawn Sears, Kenny Sears’s wife, likewise performed as vocalists with the group. Eddie Stubbs, the Grand Ole Opry announcer, appears on the same recording. Vince Gill became a member in 2012 and is prominently featured on the self-titled The Time Jumpers, issued later that year by Rounder Records. The project earned a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album in 2013. Founding member Hoot Hester lost his battle with cancer just before the September 2016 arrival of the follow-up Kid Sister, an album dedicated to Dawn Sears, who had succumbed to the same disease in 2014.