Jim Ballard

Photo Credit Thomas Apathy Photography

A native of NE Ohio, Jim Ballard has been, for many years, a part of the music/recording/performing community there. After a long period of touring and performing all over the country, working with artists from 10,000 Maniacs to Gordon Lightfoot,The Mekons to Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger, he moved into producing and recording out of his Akron studio, Skylyne. He has also created film scores for a number of independent films and animations. He has recorded and worked with recording artists from Michael Stanley and Don Dixon to Alex Bevan, Charlie Wiener. He currently performs with his backing band, The Strangs and has been seen performing solo from time to time in the NE Ohio area.

Throughout my songwriting career, I have, in my body of work, written about human rights, social justice, equity and war/peace issues. My goal is not to ‘preach’ on these subjects, but to bring them to attention, bring them into consciousness, give people pause for thought and action. I believe that’s an artist’s calling. I think of myself as part of the ‘family tree’ of songwriters such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen in that they consistently advocated for such things in their music, performances and especially their words. Additionally a good amount of my frame of reference is derived from growing up in the 330 area. Having traveled much of the world, I ultimately chose to settle where my roots are and take a stand on making it a better place.