Bios

Jim Lipson

Jim & Tom at the Oasis

As Wayback's impresario and schmoozer-in-chief, Jim keeps our gig calendar humming and orchestrates the never-ending round of special guests that has garnered the Wayback Machine its reputation as "a different band every night."

Since leaving the East Coast for the Arizona desert in 1983, Jim has been a tireless driving force within the Tucson music community. He launched the first local music column at the fledgling Tucson Weekly in 1985. Read Jim's article about the first annual Tucson Folk Festival in 1986. Jim is also a former disc jockey and current board member for community radio station 91.3 KXCI, and has worked as a volunteer for the Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association.

Rebecca, Rava and Jim at the 2006 Tucson Folk Festival

Jim's years spent chronicling and promoting local live music led him onto the bandstand as percussionist for the legendary Brain Damage Orchestra. Since then he has shared the stage with numerous Tucson bands working in a wide range of musical genres, from reggae, blues and rock to bluegrass, jazz and funk. Jim has been a member of The Rusty Boys, Good Medicine, Spontaneous Combustion, The Honey Guns, Hipster/T. Greg's Dogma and Somos, before co-founding the Wayback Machine with Tom Woolley in 1999.

Jim is currently the Volunteer Coordinator at Pima College Adult Education, and teaches yoga at the Providence Institute. He has also worked as a lobster fisherman, and is renowned for his killer jump shot and dead-on Ed Sullivan impersonation.

Jim's familiar words
"There ya go!"

See photos from Jim and Rebecca's 2006 wedding.