Jim Stafford Had Us Lovin’ Spiders and Snakes and Introduced Us to a Lovely Gal Named Cow Patti
Jim Stafford never had a number one country hit. He never had a Top Ten country hit. He never had a Top Twenty country hit. To be honest, the biggest country chart hit that Jim ever had was in 1974 when his 'Wildwood Weed' made it into about the Top Fifties or so.
So safe to say that Jim will probably never make it into the Country Music Hall of Fame. And I'm not arguing that he should.
But to me, Jim Stafford is a classic country artist. If you took the most familiar Jim Stafford songs, pop hits like 'Spiders and Snakes', 'My Girl Bill', the aforementioned 'Wildwood Weed' and others, and put them up against what passes for country music now...well, Jim Stafford is waaay country!
Like millions of others, I was introduced to Jim back in the 70's with those songs mentioned above. It was that time in my life when I was discovering the greatest songwriters of the past half century (or more!). And for me, well, I'd put the creative talents of Jim right there with people like Shel Silverstein, Jerry Jeff Walker, Roger Miller and others. (Sorry but Kris Kristofferson is my all time number one writer and nobody touches Kris!). In fact, Jim's rendition of Jerry Jeff's 'Mr. Bojangles' is one of the real musical treasure's of the past 50 years or so. Really.
In a way of introducing you (or if you're an old dog like me, re-introducing) you to the talented Jim Stafford, let's go back to the Smothers Brothers and watch and listen to Jim tell us all about the immortal 'Cow Patti'!
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