Jim Wells Bio Page...

I was born on October 28, 1950 in Ithaca, New York to Robert James and Alice Crosby Wells. Great parents! The third of four children, however, I grew up as the second of three. My sister, Barbara, passed away shortly after birth. My brother Glen is a talented and interesting guy who I think you all would like very much. My brother Randy passed away several years ago.

I graduated from Ithaca High School (sort of) in 1968, not without a certain amount of ... um... trouble. US Army service as a musician thru the end of the 60s. Played in various rock and blues bands around upstate New York and Florida from then into 1976 when I stopped to attend graduate school; it's getting harder to remember all this exactly...

The picture that follows is lil' ol' me way back in 1970 or so with my band "Wild Turkey". I excelled, generally, in the hair department back then... Not so much anymore, though.

Then I got married in 1975 and ultimately divorced in 1996.

The marriage resulted in two great kids though, Adam and Lisa. Both very talented and nice people and I'm not just saying that because I'm their Dad... The marriage was not for nothing!

Graduated SUNY Empire State College with a BS in Journalism and Photojournalism in 1976. All course work was at Cornell in the Communications Arts and Government departments.

Then Grad school. Graduated from Cornell University in 1978 with an MBA. My concentration was Health Care Administration and I also earned the Sloan Certificate (Master's Equivalent) from Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Business. The Sloan Certificate was granted after I completed a two year curicullum in Hospital Administration. I also served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in two courses: Structured PL/1 Programming (computer programming), and Linear Programming (principles of and techniques for building, solving, and applying systems of linear equations) for a fine teacher named Tony Walters, Ph.D. who has long since moved on...

Continued playing music, mostly Blues, during my undergraduate and graduate school years with various club jobs and appearances on "Bound For Glory", a live performance radio show hosted by Phil Shapiro and broadcast live every Sunday night by WVBR-FM, in Ithaca, New York. You can still hear this show by logging into them on the Internet. I played with some great folks like Howie Bersen and Bennett Hammond on those radio shows; we had a blast.. They are both exceptional musicians who you should all listen to...

After finishing my masters degree, I was on the management staff of Cook County Hospital in Chicago for a bit more than a year. I then joined the administrative team of Methodist Hospitals of Dallas and served as Adminstrator of one of the system's Dallas area hospitals among other positions. During this time I also served as a Special Commissioner for the Dallas County Commissioner's Court where I assisted in the resolution of Eminent Domain issues. From there I joined the firm of (then) Price Waterhouse (now Price WaterhouseCoopers) and started the Dallas healthcare management consulting and accounting practice for the firm. We developed many new clients including organizations like Scott & White, Parkland, the VNA of Texas, and many other fine companies. I was then recuited to Touche Ross (now Deloitte & Touche) as a Partner in the management consulting practice where I was in charge of the Dallas healthcare practice and also served as Regional Partner for the Southwest US Healthcare Practice. It sounds a lot better than it actually was... In addition, I was involved substantially in our bankruptcy practice with clients such as Storage Technology (now StorageTek) and American Healthcare Management -- both Chapter 11 cases where we represented the Debtor in Possession, and unsecured creditors, respectively. Some of our health care practice clients included Dallas Memorial Hospital, CIGNA Healthplans, MetaPhysicans, Bossier City Hospital, Guam Memorial Hospital and the Government of Guam, as well as many other fine hospital and health service firms.

After that I ran my own consulting firm from the early 90s to 1997 when I joined the management team of a health care company here in Dallas (VHA Texas), which is where I am presently employed as Vice President - Business Development... I do that during the day and will now (2008) resume playing blues and other types of music in a variety of venues around Dallas/Fort Worth.

From 1976 or so until early summer of 1996, I actually stopped playing professionally. When I played music during that period, it was usually in a small studio I set up in house. It was a good time and I spent those 20 years trying to become a better guitarist, writing songs, as well as recording original material, arranging and recording covers and occasionally giving lessons and so on...

However, in June of 1997, I began performing again as a solo blues act in places like bookstores and smaller clubs. I then recruited the core of my current band and played in some 20-30 or so clubs in North Texas and Houston as well as playing a variety of private, corporate parties, club shows, and festivals. We got to the point where we were playing 100-150 shows per year until I became quite ill (late 2004) and went on hiatus to recover my health.

I got better though and here we are!!! I hope to see you all soon, or rather, have you see us sometime soon as we re-emerge and begin playing shows in NOrth Texas again.

I also get many questions from some of ya'll about my equipment and so in summary, I typically play either a Tokai "Lawsuit" Strat, a 1946 Gibson ES 300, a Gibson ES 345 TDC (stereo), an original '53 Fender Telecaster or a nice old (60s) Les Paul Goldtop.

I generally play through a 1964 Fender Super Reverb or a 1966 Fender Pro Reverb amplifier. I also use an original (1997) Line 6 for those of you who know what that is...a good amp, for sure. These days I prefer the Tokai or the Les Paul. I use steel, and occasionally glass and brass slides depending on what I'm trying to do. The steel is lighter but still has nice "grab" on the strings.

The return of Big Jim Wells and the Nightowls is now officially underway!

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