Jim Gaines, Thirty Years Behind The Glass, book cover

Jim Gaines, Thirty Years Behind The Glass

Grammy Winning Producer Jim Gaines Tells His Story To Lee Zimmerman
‘Thirty Years Behind The Glass’
Otis Redding, Stax Records, Stevie Ray Vaughan & Santana
Behind The Scenes Producer-Engineer

In a recording career spanning some fifty years, bridging a range in time and style that reaches from the early days at Memphis’s Stax Records to Carlos Santana’s eight-Grammy year in 2000 and beyond, producer Jim Gaines has operated the mixing board for some of the greatest artists in American music. Journey, Huey Lewis & the News, Steve Miller, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Dionne Warwick are just a few influential musicians. They have entrusted their creativity and talent to his proven abilities.

Gaines still remembers the day—April 4, 1968—when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. Hearing the sirens and seeing the smoke rising from the downtown Memphis skyline, Gaines remembers loading tapes from Stax studio that night into various employees’ vehicles to be taken away for safekeeping until the unrest in the city subsided.

Near the other end of his career, Gaines recalls receiving a phone call during a break in the session at Willie Nelson’s studio near Austin, where he was recording demo tracks for the rising Texas group Los Lonely Boys. The date was September 11, 2001. Once again, there would be no more recording completed that day.

In this wide-ranging collection of personal interviews and reminiscences, Gaines, with the help of author Lee Zimmerman, offers readers the priceless opportunity to sit down with a true music industry veteran and hear a lifetime’s worth of stories from inside the studio.

Jim Gaines, is a multiple Grammy-winning record producer and engineer, was recently inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. Legendary artists for whom he has produced records include Huey Lewis and the News, Steve Miller, Journey, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Carlos Santana.

Lee Zimmerman is the author of Americana Music: Voices, Visionaries, and Pioneers of an Honest Sound. Based in Maryville, Tennessee, he is a music writer and contributor to Goldmine, American Songwriter, Rock and Roll Globe, Living Blues, Bluegrass Today, and Holler. He is a former promotions representative for ABC and Capitol Records.

“Jim Gaines is a masterful craftsman. He understands capturing the sounds of eternity and infinity. You know by now who he has worked with (Stevie Ray Vaughn, Steve Miller, Santana, etc.) to enhance their music. I am forever grateful for Jim Gaines for sharing his knowledge, wisdom, and heart with me.” —Carlos Santana.

“One of my greatest accomplishments in the music industry was to get Jim Gaines back in it.” —Huey Lewis.

“His classy personality surpasses Mr. Gaines’s expertise as a top-of-the-line producer. We love him!” —George Thorogood.

Thirty Years behind the Glass
From Otis Redding and Stax Records to Santana’s Supernatural
By Lee Zimmerman, As told by Jim Gaines

6 x 9 in 216 pp. 4 photos. Index
College Station: Texas A&M University Press. $35.00 hardcover

Publication Date: November 2, 2022