Features: PolKats - Class of the Sixties


Jim Carlton
We have not yet received the biographical information (relating to Jim's early years in the Winter Haven area) so in the meantime, we have lifted his bio from his web-site. See www.jimcarlton.com for a wealth of info and insight into the creative mind of Jim Carlton.


Jazz guitarist, singer, comedian and freelance writer, Jim Carlton, began his music career in 1962 with Jim Stafford and Gram Parsons in their rock band the Legends.

Jim has written comedy material for several performers including: the Smothers Brothers, Gallagher, Pat Paulsen, Joan Rivers, Roger Miller, Mason Williams and Jim Stafford. He has also produced two TV pilots at Universal Studios and has written for a number of popular network television shows including the New Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS in 1988 and 89 and frequently created special material that appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Arsenio Hall Show, Nashville Now, Thicke of The Night and Late Night with David Letterman. In addition, Jim wrote the script for The Pirate’s Adventure, a popular attraction that is currently running in Orlando, and has written special material for the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

Recently, Carlton composed liner notes for several Cds including a series of re-released albums by jazz guitar-great Howard Roberts, a Byrds retrospective album, Sanctuary IV and two reissues of the late jazz guitarist Joe Pass. Carlton has also completed a series of interviews with 22 of the world’s greatest jazz guitarists that is due for release in book form in 2004.

In 2001, Carlton co-produced a CD for Sundazed Music entitled Another Side of This Life - The Lost Recordings of Gram Parsons, a compilation of recordings he made of Parsons in 1965 and 1966. Also in 2001, Carlton was featured as a guest speaker and panelist at the prestigious music industry function South By Southwest in Austin, Texas.

Jim Carlton lives in Mount Dora, Florida and regularly performs throughout the state. His act is a combination of standup comedy and standard songs from the Great American Songbook.