The Man to See if You Wanted to Make a Record

Bluegrass has never been known as a producer’s music. The bands get famous; the producers of their albums don’t. Unlike their counterparts in such genres as rock, soul, hip-hop, or country, bluegrass record producers have mostly toiled in obscurity, their contributions known only to a few. Jim Dickson deserves better than that, deserves to be acclaimed for his landmark productions that helped shape bluegrass in the 1960s and 1970s.  Between 1963 and 1976, Jim Dickson produced ten albums that are today rightly considered bluegrass classics. He produced the first three records by the Dillards, the first four albums by Country Gazette, Doug Dillard’s first solo album, the only album by the Hillmen, and the soundtrack to the movie Deliverance. When it comes to recorded music, Jim Dickson put Southern California bluegrass on the national map.  James Thomas Buchanan Dickson was born January 7, 1931, in Los Angeles. His father, a U.S. Navy officer, introduced him to sailing,