Jimmy started playing bass professionally in 1980 with the band Masque, featuring guitar wiz Vinnie Moore. He moved to Florida in 1986 and took up with Easy Excess for 2 years of non-stop gigging.
Wanting to pursue Blues as his main music, he returned to the Tri-State area in 1989 and picked up a gig with Lisa Jack & The Reputations. This led to many years of work backing up regional acts such as Sister Blue, Jim McCarthy, The Homewreckers and Roni & The Eldorado’s.
In 1996 he hit the road with Blues great Sonny Rhodes touring Europe, Canada & the U.S. It was on this tour that he met and played with many great Bluesmen including the legendary Frankie Lee. He went on to back up the singer on some East Coast dates.
In 1997 he recorded with Randy Lippincott & began backing up Randy as well as Georgie Bonds & The Blueskeepers and Arkansa’s own Lonnie Shields. It was at this time that Jimmy recorded & played with Delaware artist Socco, and was touched by his sparks of creativity.
Jimmy stayed busy with various blues artists, even backing L.A.’s Arthur Adams at the 2000 Pocono Blues Fest and Chris Cain at the 2001 Riverfront Blues Fest.
In 2003 he hit the road with Big Jack Johnson touring the U.S. & Canada with one of the kindest artists in the blues. Since 2003, he has played & recorded with harmonica ace Mikey Jr. Around the same time, he started backing multi-talented blues man Richard Ray Farrell. He hosted the blues jam Every Tuesday @ Warmdaddys in Philly for several years with The Randy Lippincott Band.
Joining up with Roger Girke in 2004, he toured with Roger supporting the album, ”My Baby Loves that Stuff” enjoying many nights of powerful music.
Jimmy recorded his own record of originals, “Shopping for the Blues.” It was very well received and nominated by the North Jersey Blues & Jazz Society for The Blues Foundation CD competition in 2007.
In 2008 he tracked for the new CD by Lonnie Shields, “Keeper of the Blues,” and backed Gary Allegretto @ The Riverfront Blues Fest in support of his record, “Many Shades of Blue.” In the same year he took up company with Philly’s own Zydeco-a-Go-Go, letting the good times roll.
In 2009 he toured the south with Mikey Jr and had a chance to back up the great Eddie Kirkland, a real special man with very deep ties to the music.
In 2010 his second record, “Goin’ Down 9,” was released. It featured many of the areas finest musicians. The album was nominated by the Diamond State Blues Society & made the first cut in the Blues Foundation’s 2011 International Blues Challenge CD competition. That same year at the IBC he backed Mikey Jr, went to the semi-finals & in 2012 to the IBC finals. Also in 2010 Jimmy started fronting his own three-piece band which sometimes featured a double sax threat.
2011 brought a producing credit for Blue Cat Blues debut CD “Whiskey Feet.” He played bass and contributed an original song on The St. Georges Sessions.
Jimmy was part of the rhythm section at the Little Walter Birthday Bash in 2012 with old friend & musical comrade Chris Sherlock. “We spent a many a day together servin’ up the groove,” which featured nine of the area’s top harmonicists.
2014 brought the Jimmy Pritchard band to Memphis where they became International Blues Challenge Semi-Finalists, representing the Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation.
Jimmy left Delaware for a few years to play with Albert Castiglia, touring with him until the spring of 2019.
Currently, Jimmy is back in Delaware playing with his band and promoting his latest album, “Meet Me In Memphis.” Read Blues Blast’s Marty Gunther’s review here.