Blues guitarist Jim Glass will be inducted into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame December 29 at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix along with Tucson blues musician Mike Lenaburg. The induction ceremony event will go from 8 p.m. to midnight, with many of the blues musicians that Glass has played with performing. Glass's band will also perform.
The bill includes Tommy Dukes, George Bowman, Dirt Music Express, Matt Roe, Mario Moreno, Jimmy Pines and Washboard Jere, Jimmy Mack, Mack Hall, and harmonica great Hans Olsen.
There is a $5 suggested donation with proceeds going to the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame.
Glass plays Chicago blues as well as rhythm and blues. "I'm excited about getting into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame. It's an honor living here and playing here as long as I have," he says.
Glass was thrilled when Olsen, on behalf of the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame, contacted him to let him that his induction was forthcoming.
Glass has been playing the blues for more than 40 years. He started in the '60s after hearing Albert King, Wes Montgomery, Sam and Dave, Booker T and the Mgs and others perform at the Fillmore in San Francisco.
"The first time I heard Freddie King's "Hideaway" I was smitten," he says. Mike Bloomfield would lead blues jams on Sundays at the Fillmore. This encouraged Glass to get his first band going while he was in high school. He was later influenced by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
Glass's playing days started in San Francisco but moved to Chicago when his bass player Jim Walkoe moved there and took him with him. "Jim knew everybody so we got gigs right away," Glass says. "We had just gone through an earthquake so I was open to anything."
Glass ended up playing with Muddy Waters, Jeremy Arnold (who was the bass player with the Paul Butterfield Band), and other blues greats.
His travels took him to perform at the L.A. strip before he saw an advertisement for a guitar needed for a touring band in the Prescott area. He moved to Paulden in 1976 and later moved to Prescott working the Palace, the Bird Cage and other Prescott-area venues. In the '80s, he moved to Flagstaff, performing with Tommy Dukes and others at Charlie's, Monte Vista and Mary's Café.
During the '80s, he performed with Small Paul and the Driving Wheel and later with Big Pete Pearson's blues band, called Seville.
In the '90s, Glass formed his own Jim Glass Band in the Prescott area. Later, Glass moved to the Phoenix area and reformed his band which eventually became the Bailey-Glass band.
Currently he's in the process of remaking his band one more time, with Tim Finn from Cold Schott on guitar, Ron Tropiono on bass and JD Duncan on keyboards.
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