Jim Page in the BAG, tomorrow night
While Jim Page is perhaps best known to Irish audiences for having written the Moving Hearts hit song 'Hiroshima Nagasaki Russian Roulette', there is much that many Irish music fans may not know of his far reaching influence across many musical genres.
Born in California in 1949, he grew up into the 1960s in the San Francisco Bay Area. The music and artistic experimentation of those days left a lasting impression on him. The politics and social awareness was a part of everything that was going on and they have stayed that way in Jim’s music ever since.
On New Year's day of 1970 he headed to New York City by thumb, arriving one frozen day in January with 34 cents in his pocket. He soon borrowed a guitar and started hitting the clubs of Greenwich Village, sometimes playing as many as three in the same night.
A year later he headed to Seattle. Wherever there were people he would play: the streets, the college campus, the bus station, the bars, and at the city council meetings. One day he walked into the TV station and said “I’ve got a song you should put on the news” and they did.
In 1975 Jim recorded his first album of original music, a vinyl LP called 'A Shot Of The Usual', released on his own label. Two other albums followed in rapid succession.
It was in Ireland that Christy Moore first heard Jim’s song 'Hiroshima Nagasaki Russian Roulette', and made it a permanent part of his repertoire.
Fast forward to the 21st century and Jim is busy with multiple projects in simultaneous array – constant solo performance, plus various ensemble configurations, leading to more albums. To date his songs have been covered by The Doobie Brothers, Christy Moore, Moving Hearts, Dick Gaughan, Roy Bailey, David Soul, Leftover Salmon, and Michael Hedges.
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