He spent the next 2 years singing back-up for Andy Gibb, and concentrating on songwriting. His influences were diverse: the behind-the-scenes writers of the Brill Building
(Mann and Weil, King and Goffin) and Motown, to writer-artists like the
Beatles, the Young Rascals and the Rolling Stones. Photoglo's eclectic style fostered recordings by a variety of artists, including
James Ingram and the Everly Brothers.
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Jim (far RIGHT) playing bass on the road with Dan
Fogelberg
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While enjoying this sabbatical from recording, his songs began to catch fire with the creative "powers-that-be" in post-"Urban Cowboy" Nashville. Before he knew it, he had cuts with
Kenny Rogers, Marty Robbins, Gary Morris and Brenda Lee. Further encouraged by good friend
Wendy Waldman, a fellow L.A. popster who'd recently relocated and was enjoying a few country hits of her own, Photoglo moved to Music City in 1984 to pursue a full-time career as a songwriter. He took the occasional tour as a bassist for the likes of
Vince Gill and Dan Fogelberg, but his main focus was songwriting, successfully quadrupling his creative output over the next few years. His devotion to his craft paid off with recordings by
Dusty Springfield, Leroy Parnell, Patty Loveless,
Highway 101, The Oak Ridge Boys, Pam Tillis, Tanya
Tucker, Travis Tritt, Neil McCoy, John Anderson and
Kathy Mattea. Four of those recordings ended up in the Top Ten of Billboard Magazine's Country Music Charts, and two went to Number One: the now-classic
Fishin' in the Dark by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and
Hometown Honeymoon by Alabama.
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(L to R: Jimmy Ibbotson of The Dirt Band, Jim,
Wendy Waldman and Jeff Hanna, also of The Dirt Band)
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Vince Gill with Jim (disguised as Gary Burr)
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