Spotlight ON! Jim Newberry

This month we shine the Spotlight ON! Jim Newberry.

2015 Maui Steel Guitar Camp participants remember him as a fellow camper. Festival guests saw him playing at the 2017 Maui Steel Guitar Festival kanikpila. HSGA convention guests saw him perform at the September 2018 and September 2019 HSGA conventions in Fort Collins, Colorado.

A resident of Seattle, Washington for 35 years, Jim Newberry grew up in a small rural town in southern Michigan called Coldwater. Now retired after a career as a scientific software engineer in microbiology and geosciences, Jim has a lot more time to devote to music and the instruments he loves.

Jim started playing guitar while a freshman in college at Michigan State in 1977. The area was a hotbed of traditional (Appalachian, Irish, Bluegrass, folk) music at the time.

"Elderly Instruments was a store and social center of the community then and I eventually worked there part-time," says Jim. "I started playing old time Appalachian fiddle, guitar, and banjo then, and eventually took up Louisiana Cajun French music (playing fiddle) in the 1990s in Seattle."

Jim continues, "Around 2007, I became interested in the steel guitar in Cajun dance hall music, built my first lap steel and integrated it into the Cajun band I'd been playing with."

After playing Cajun music (open G tuning; high G) for a while, Jim began to explore the 6^th tunings which landed him in a Country band in 2012. Jim has played in that band on a regular basis ever since that time. His primary tuning is A6.

"My musical question has always been: 'Where did this come from?' which naturally led me to Hawaiian steel guitar," recalls Jim. "I fell in love with Hawaiian steel guitar in 2014, the year I attended my first HSGA convention in Fort Collins, Colorado."

Jim says that his historical influences are Sol Ho‘opi‘i, Tau Moe, Benny Rogers, Jules Ah See, Gabby Pahinui, and Billy Hew Len. His contemporary influences are Jeff Au Hoy, Kumu Alan Akaka, Bobby Ingano, and Dwight Tokumoto, among others.

When asked how many steel guitars he owns and which is his favorite, Jim replies, "Hard question!"

"I have two Fender Dual Pro consoles and 5 lap steel guitars. I love them all, but I play my Clinesmith 8-string frypan (the first shipped) the most, and also love my Clinesmith Joaquin and '36ish Rickenbacher B6."

Besides the Hawaiian steel guitar, Jim also plays a standard guitar (both acoustic and electric,) fiddle, clawhammer banjo, Cajun button accordion, and ‘ukulele.

Three Chords and the Truth

Jim's country band, "Three Chords and the Truth" plays regularly at a tavern/roadhouse outside of Port Townsend, Washington. Jim plays non-pedal steel guitar. He also plays Hawaiian music for his own enjoyment and on social occasions.

Besides his music interests, Jim builds and restores vacuum tube guitar amplifiers for his own use. Jim adds, "I also enjoy birdwatching, hiking, camping with my wife and friends, and wrangling my 6-month old Boston Terrier Maisie."

This video is of Jim Newberry playing "Dreams of Old Hawai‘i" from a video taken by Shinichi Kakiuchi at the 2018 HSGA Convention at Fort Collins, Colorado. Jim's performance can be seen at 2:35 to 6:20.

The video can also be seen on YouTube.