HOW I GOT HERE
Jim Gillum is a singer/songwriter, music producer, instrumentalist, actor, and educator from Cincinnati (say that ten times fast!), Ohio, strumming a mix of original music and covers, everything from the Beatles to Buffett to Zac Brown. His original songs reflect that mix as well, with a healthy dose of country and classic rock.
As the son of a Church of Christ minister, he was raised on a steady diet of gospel music and Hank Williams, Sr. As a teen, he discovered a taste for the Beatles, smuggling their records into his basement bedroom when his mom wasn’t looking. He never lost his love of country music, playing in a high school “garage country band” whose repertoire included Merle Haggard and Neil Young. But it was right out of high school that he met a musician who would thoroughly change the course of his musical career, the late Rich Mullins (“Awesome God”), a contemporary Christian recording artist and Dove Award winner. Rich pulled Jim into his musical circle as he began to develop his own notoriety, performing in churches throughout the Midwest. On at least a couple of occasions, Jim was fortunate to have performed with Rich.
Jim went on to work as a solo performer in Cincinnati, where he developed his songwriting and stagecraft. Mixing in occasional humor in his shows (he still does an impersonation of a duet featuring Willie Nelson singing with Barney Fife), he performs regularly around the Greater Cincinnati area. He used his character voice talent in 1998 as the voice of the Lion and the Wizard in the production of “The Wizard of Oz,” performed by Frisch's Marionettes. Additionally, over the past 24 years, he has been a successful music educator, mentoring several students along the way and teaching music in schools around Cincinnati.
He has previously released two albums recorded in Nashville, Tennessee: “Back Road Home” (1997) and “The Last Road” (1999). “Back Road Home” features an appearance by country music legend Steve Wariner, a 4-time Grammy Award winner who has charted over 50 singles in his career. “The Last Road” features various “A-list" musicians, including Grammy Award-winning fiddle player Glen Duncan. Rick Bird of the Cincinnati Post wrote in 2000, “Gillum’s ‘The Last Road’ is a slickly produced project, recorded in Nashville, featuring several solid session players and Gillum’s own well-crafted contemporary Christian songwriting.”
Perhaps the crowning achievement of “The Last Road” was Jim’s own song, “The Message of the Man,” written in honor of his late father, John Gillum, which placed 3rd at the Gospel Music Association’s “Music in the Rockies” in 2004.
From 2010 to 2015, he attended Berklee College of Music, where he won the Phil Spector award for songwriting in 2012. The result of his work at Berklee was the album "Soak It Up" (2017), which features a healthy dose of country and rock, along with the consistent thread of a faith that has sustained him and his music over the years.
Since Berklee, he has released "Good News at Eleven" (2019) and "Strawberry Moon: The Best of Jim Gillum" (2022), featuring the song "Siri Hears Me Talkin' in My Sleep," which has been turned into a video produced by Paul Bernstein. The video for the song "Siri Hears Me Talkin' in My Sleep" has already garnered over 35,000 views on YouTube and over 55,000 views on IndiMusicTV.
In 2023, Jim became the spokesman/actor for the Mr. Moody book series, created by author Marty Walker of Lexington, Kentucky. The book series is designed to be an integral part of Marty's curriculum intended for schools and for television. In late summer and early fall of 2023, he performed that role in the pilot episode and in multiple commercials promoting the program. He is also involved in creating musical content for the program. You can learn more about the program by going to mzmarty.com
In 2024, Jim shared the stage one night with Mac McAnally and some of Jimmy Buffett’s old bandmates for a rendition of “Margaritaville.” “It was one of the high points in my career," according to Jim.
In December of 2025, Jim released a new song/video, “Santa Rides a Harley,” a Christmas novelty song co-written with longtime collaborator Kevin Fox. The video was produced by Paul Bernstein. So far, the video has reached over 24,000 views on TikTok.
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