James Edwin Farrar (December 8, 1950 – October 29, 2018) was a singer, songwriter and musician born in LaGrange, Georgia, and the original lead singer of the Raw Energy band. He was also known as the second lead singer of the American Southern Rock band Molly Hatchet from 1980 to 1982, and in more recent years, Gator Country.

Life and career

Early years

James Edwin Farrar was born in LaGrange, Georgia on 8 December 1950. His parents were Edwin Herman Farrar and Vesta Eloise Foster. Jimmy Farrar started singing when he was a child, in his home town of LaGrange, Georgia while listening to songs on the radio. Farrar remembered he had a maid who had a stack of 78 records that he listened to in his early childhood, as early as four years old. B.B. King,

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...

and other

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

artists were his influences. In his late teens, Farrar moved to Atlanta where he was in a rock band named Intrepid with his friend

Frank Holiday Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curre ...

. After that he toured for a couple of years with another band named Catt.

Molly Hatchet years 1980–82

In 1978, Farrar went back home to LaGrange to work a regular job for two years, until joining the La Grange band Raw Energy Band as their lead singer. Raw Energy went on tour six nights a week, 52 songs per night. While in

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in February 1980 the band met Rocky Membrettie, who was a former roadie for Molly Hatchet. Raw Energy put him to work with them as they continued touring, eventually ending up back in LaGrange, Georgia, the home base of the band. Rocky Membrettie suggested the Raw Energy band make a tape and take it to

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of Geo ...

Pat Armstrong Pat Armstrong is a Canadian sociologist and Distinguished Research Professor at York University. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Armstrong has served as a Chair for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in Health Services a ...

who was handling Molly Hatchet. When Jimmy Farrar's vocals were heard by Molly Hatchet's producer, he was eyed as a possible replacement for vocalist

Danny Joe Brown Danny Joe Brown (August 24, 1951 – March 10, 2005)
– accessed May 2010 was the lead singer of the

Tangerine Bowl in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

opening for

Bob Seger Robert Clark Seger ( ; born May 6, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and The Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s, break ...

for an audience of 65,000 people, but Danny Joe Brown arrived at the last minute and the band did the show with Brown instead, which was Brown's final show at that time with Molly Hatchet. The next show, on 9 May 1980, in front of 20,000 high school seniors at King's Dominion Amusement Park in Virginia, was Farrar's first with Molly Hatchet. Along with Jimmy Farrar came a new approach to the band's sound. The earlier albums feature more variation in guitar tone and style and exhibit a distinct southern cultural influence, which seemed to change with the addition of Farrar on vocals. By this time, acts such as Van Halen had made harder heavy metal-influenced rock popular in the 1980s, and may have led to a shift in the band's sound and style. Danny Joe Brown's stage persona, gruff voice and cowboy horse-whistling had matched well with the overtly southern-influenced sounds of his era. Farrar's new vocal style, mixed with a new harder-rocking sound has been seen as the reason for Molly Hatchet's rise in popularity in the early 1980s. The first year Farrar was on tour with Molly Hatchet the band did almost 300 shows. At the end of the tour Molly Hatchet averaged more than six shows a week. With the success of the next album, the ''

Beatin' the Odds Beatin' the Odds may refer to: * ''Beatin' the Odds'' (Molly Hatchet album), 1980 * ''Beatin' the Odds'' (Eddie Rabbitt album), 1997 {{disambiguation ...

'' release, the band ventured even farther away from the southern rock sound of their first albums. By 1981, Molly Hatchet had evolved to a straight-ahead rock style and a slicker production, exhibited on the ''

Take No Prisoners The phrase no quarter was generally used during military conflict to imply combatants would not be taken prisoner, but killed. According to some modern American dictionaries, a person who is given no quarter is "not treated kindly" or "treated ...

'' release of the same year. The band remained a successful act on the touring circuit. Founding member and bass player Banner Thomas left in 1983 and was replaced by Riff West, while Farrar also left Molly Hatchet in late 1982 for personal reasons, his last show being on 9 May 1982 at Six Flags in Atlanta. He would later rejoin other members of Molly Hatchet in Southern Rock Allstars and Gator Country. Brown rejoined the band in late 1982 after the departure of Farrar and B. B. Borden. After leaving Molly Hatchet, Farrar played in a band called Predator for six years. Then he was the lead singer of the Section 8 band. In 1999, Farrar joined the Dixie Jam Band at the Jammin for DJB benefit, and spent several years as a member of the Southern Rock All-Stars.

Gator Country

Farrar then joined Gator Country alongside several other former Molly Hatchet members, Jimmy Farrar, Steve Holland., Bruce Crump,

Riff West A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompanim ...

, along with Paul Chapman, a former member of the band U.F.O. and Linni Disse.

2008

In July 2008, the Gator Country band web site reported that lead singer Jimmy Farrar had suffered a mild stroke. According to the web site: "It is true that Jimmy, our beloved brother and front man, suffered a stroke a couple of weeks ago. He woke up, as he puts it, "Feelin' kind of funky" on his left side. As strokes go, it was a mild one and he is having very minimal effects as a result. The first morning in the hospital they had him up and walking the halls and he's been mobile ever since. The only complaint he has is a little weakness in his left arm. Some physical therapy is expected to help with that."

Later years and death

Jimmy Farrar lived in his home town of LaGrange, Georgia, and continued with solo music projects, most recently with the LaGrange, Georgia, based-band Hanging Tough, along with Kenneth Roberts (rhythm and lead guitars), Frank Holiday (bass), Randy Harper (keyboards), Ronnie Chesser (drums), and Tony Loftis (lead guitar). Farrar died on October 29, 2018, due to

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

, at the age of 67.

Discography

*"Oh Atlanta", single with Gator Country

Studio albums with Molly Hatchet

References

External links

Hanging Tough Live at Del RanchNewspaper Write-Up on Jimmy FarrarThe Official Molly Hatchet WebsiteJimmy Farrar: Still Alive and WellMolly Hatchet with Jimmy Farrar vocalsJimmy Farrar talks about Gator Country
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farrar, Jimmy 1950 births 2018 deaths American rock singers American Southern Rock musicians Molly Hatchet members 20th-century American singers Songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) People from LaGrange, Georgia Singers from Georgia (U.S. state) 20th-century American male singers American male songwriters