1. Jimmy Day was a pioneer on pedal steel in the genres of Western swing and Honky tonk and his modifications of the instrument's design have become a standard on the modern pedal steel.
21 Facts About Jimmy Day
1. 2.
Jimmy Day recorded and toured with all these artists and was featured on hit records by many of them, including Ray Price's, "Crazy Arms" and "Heartaches by the Number".
3.
Jimmy Day was a member of Elvis Presley's band for about a year, but, along with fellow bandmate Floyd Cramer, resigned after Presley requested them to re-locate to Hollywood.
4.
Jimmy Day moved to Nashville to work as a session player and a Grand Ole Opry musician.
5.
Jimmy Day was a member of the Western Swing Hall of Fame and the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame.
6.
Jimmy Day was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but grew up in Louisiana.
7.
Jimmy Day decided then with certainty that he wanted to master the steel guitar.
8.
Jimmy Day received a six-string lap steel as a Christmas present in 1949.
9.
Jimmy Day's first recording session was Webb Pierce's song, "That Heart Belongs to Me" in 1952.
10.
Jimmy Day played in Ernest Tubb's "Texas Troubadors" and Jim Reeves' band, the "Blue Boys".
11.
Jimmy Day recorded several songs with Reeves, and had two instrumentals of his own, "Rippin' Out" and "Blue Wind".
12.
Jimmy Day released a solo album, Steel and Strings in 1963.
13.
Jimmy Day began transitioning from lap steel to the new and more versatile pedal steel guitar about 1954, while performing with Lefty Frizzell.
14.
Jimmy Day designed and manufactured the first pedal steel guitars with push-rod pedals.
15.
Jimmy Day is credited, with splitting a single pedal on a pedal steel guitar which changed the pitch two strings simultaneously; he made it into two separate pedals, one for each of the strings.
16.
Jimmy Day added a new E string at the 8th string position in 1958.
17.
Jimmy Day became active in the Texas music scene, working with Price, Nelson and Johnny Bush; he ventured back to Nashville only occasionally.
18.
Jimmy Day created an album saluting Don Helms and in 1992 paid tribute to another guitarist, Western swing artist Herb Remington, with whom Day recorded an instrumental duet album.
19.
Jimmy Day died of cancer in 1999 and is buried in Austin.
20.
Jimmy Day was inducted into the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1982.
21.
Jimmy Day was a member of the Western Swing Hall of Fame.