Jim Mills
Jim Mills (December 18, 1966–May 3, 2024) was an American bluegrass banjo expert. Born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, he began playing professionally after high school with the group Summer Wages before joining Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. He achieved his greatest musical visibility during his 14 years with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder (1996–2010), contributing to six Grammy Award-winning albums including Bluegrass Rules! (1997). As a solo recording artist, his debut project, Bound to Ride (1998), earned the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Instrumental Album of the Year award. He won IBMA Banjo Player of the Year six times. In 2010, he retired from full-time touring to operate a rare instrument dealership in Durham, North Carolina, establishing himself as the definitive global expert on pre-war Gibson flathead Mastertone banjos and publishing the landmark reference book Gibson Mastertones: Flathead 5-String Banjos of the 1930s and 1940s (2009).
In the newsletter
- No. 16 Fall 1998