James King
With his 1993 solo album These Old Pictures, James King was established as a top-notch bluegrass vocalist. The album, however, was only the latest step in a musical career that had begun 14 years before.
A featured member of Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys in the 1980s, King, who was raised in Virginia's Carroll County, grew up listening to bluegrass. His father, Jim King, had appeared on Roanoke television with Don Reno and Red Smiley as tenor vocalist and guitarist for the Country Cousins, and, with his uncle, Joe Edd King, had played with the late Ted Lundy of the Southern Mountain Boys in the 1960s.
Following a stint in the Marines, King launched his musical career in 1979. His recording debut came on the long-titled album Stanley Brothers Classics with Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys and Introducing James King in 1985. His second album, Reunion with Ralph Stanley Featuring George Shuffler and James King, was released three years later.
King's 1985 self-titled debut solo outing was followed by It's a Cold Cold World, released in 1989 and reissued as Webco Classics, Volume Two in 1996. While both albums showcased his crystal-clear lead vocals, neither featured the high-quality instrumental accompaniment of his later work.
After signing with Rounder Records, King's career was propelled into overdrive. These Old Pictures -- which featured members of the Johnson Mountain Boys (Dudley Cornell, Tom Adams and David McLaughlin) and the Lynn Morris Band (Marshall Wilborn and Tim Smith), plus ex-Nashville Bluegrass Band mandolinist Mike Compton -- was named Breakthrough Album of the Year by Bluegrass Unlimited and led to King being nominated as Emerging Artist of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association in 1995. King's fourth solo album, Lonesome and Then Some, featured many of the same players.
In 1997, King joined with Cornell, Wilborn, Glen Duncan, Joe Mullins and Don Rigsby to form the bluegrass supergroup Longview. The solo Bed by the Window followed a year later.
© Craig Harris /TiVo
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Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
James King, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1967
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Das Lied von Der Erde
(Dame) Janet Baker, James King, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Die Walküre
Birgit Nilsson, Leonie Rysanek, James King, Theo Adam, Bayreuther Festspielorchester, Karl Böhm
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No.9; Das Lied von der Erde
(Dame) Janet Baker, James King, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Road Stories
Country - Released by UPPM Records on 30 Jan 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gardens In The Sky: The Bluegrass Gospel of James King
Country - Released by Rounder Records on 1 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Bluegrass Storyteller
Country - Released by Rounder on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bed By The Window
Country - Released by Rounder Records on 1 Jan 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Rinaldo, Schicksalslied & Nänie
James King, Alexander Faris, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Claudio Abbado
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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time to time
Alternative & Indie - Released by The System on 1 Apr 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven Symphony No.9
Dame Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, James King, Martti Talvela, Hans Schmidt-Issestedt, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by Mangora Classical on 17 Jun 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Thirty Years Of Farming
Country - Released by Rounder on 1 Jan 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lonesome And Then Some
Country - Released by Rounder on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
hollow
Alternative & Indie - Released by The System on 2 Sep 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
right time
Øneheart, James King, TRE FLIP
Electronic - Released by Øneheart, james king & Tre Flip on 17 Nov 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Three Chords and the Truth
Country - Released by Rounder on 21 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Opera Highlights: James King (Live) [Orfeo d'Or]
James King, Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hildegard Behrens, Peter Glossop, Heinz Wallberg, Kurt Peter Eichhorn
Opera - Released by Orfeo on 28 Apr 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (Classic FM: The Full Works)
(Dame) Janet Baker, James King, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
Classical - Released by Decca (UMO) (Classics) on 1 Jan 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo