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Like a Moth to a Flame: The Jim Reeves Story

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Jim Reeves could sing it all: country, pop, Christmas music and gospel. His inexplicably appealing voice drew people by droves into record shops and live performances in America and around the world. At the time of his death in 1964, Jim had the number one country music album in America and he had become the first international country music superstar.

In a new biography by Michael Streissguth (actually, the only Reeves biography to date), Jim's musical career is told from his childhood in East Texas when he would sing while working in the cotton fields to his appearances on network television and in the concert halls of Europe. Much information about Jim's boyhood days came from his two surviving sisters. And in surprising detail, Streissguth writes of Jim's tremendously promising but ultimately disappointing baseball career. One potentially controversial aspect of the book is the author's telling of what might be called the dark side of Jim's personality. ! So many people have bought in to the "Gentleman Jim" public relations image of the man for so long, that learning of anything which contradicts that image might be considered near heresy. While, to many people he was indeed Gentleman Jim, he could also display what Streissguth calls an "ungraciousness". This ungraciousness could manifest itself in many ways: Jim being sarcastic with his bass player, yelling at a recording engineer, or refusing to perform because the piano was not in tune. These and worse incidents of ungraciousness are in the book . Streissguth generally presents a balanced account of Jim Reeves life and career by showing two sides of the same coin. There were some apparent contradictions in his life. He could be Gentleman Jim, but he had a hot temper. He didn't pay his band members much of a salary, but he donated his time and money to charitable causes and individuals down on their luck. He was a married man and he was a woman! chaser. He was one of the best singers ever in any catego! ry of music, yet his self doubt once caused him to tell his band members that he couldn't sing.

Michael Streissguth is a good writer. Of course, he's helped in this case by the many dramatic events of Jim's life. But the same events told by a lesser talent could be less easily visualized by the reader.You can just see Jim on the mound and hear the crowd as he strikes out another batter. You can look out the window and see the ice on the wings of that rickety old airplane over South Africa. And there's that scene in the recording studio with the revolver... There will be some hard core fans who are disappointed with this book because it doesn't tell everything about Jim Reeves.

They will wonder , "Where's the Carnegie Hall concert? What about the time Jim was emcee for a radiothon for the Tennessee Cerebral Palsy Floundation? What about this tour and that television show? Some would be satisfied with nothing less than an unabridged encyclopedia of his entire life! recounting every minute, birth to death. That is not possible or even necessary in order to tell the Jim Reeves story. It speaks well of Streissguth's abilities as a researcher and writer when you consider the fact that several people who were close to Jim refused to talk to him, and still he was able to tell the story without them.

There are a few mistakes in the book, but they are minor and do not adversely affect the telling of the story as a whole. For example, Streissguth has Ernest Tubb's longtime band member, Billy Byrd, playing steel guitar instead of electric lead guitar. And there are some typographical errors which somebody should have caught.

A compact disc with some of Jim's biggest hit songs is included with the book. "Four Walls", "He'll Have To Go", and "I Won't Come In While He's There" are great performances. The disc is not only a good selling point for the book, it may also serve as an introduction to the music of J! im Reeves for some readers. They will probably want more. ! --Frank C. Anderson

Professor Michael Streissguth's biography is an eye-opener and a valuable service to Jim Reeves fans. It contains the detailed information that might be of interest for reference purposes, as well as revealing the human side of Jim Reeves, both his failings like infidelity or explosions of temper, and his strengths, like protecting innocent people from victimisation and his undoubted generosity. It is good to have a biography written by a university academic, who is trained to evaluate evidence impartially. An especially interesting aspect of the book is its assessment of how Jim's career might have progressed had he lived, something which few people have tried to do. Another revealing aspect of the book is an answer to the puzzle of the apparent difference in the two styles of Jim Reeves, the later 'mellow' style and the earlier, high-pitched style, as can be seen in the two versions of the song 'Dear Hearts and Gentle People', for example. After reading Professor Streissguth's book, readers will know the answer to the mystery! A distinctive feature of the book is an accompanying CD, which contains a good sample of some of Jim Reeves' best songs, and will therefore provide a good introduction to readers who are new to his music. Jim Reeves recorded hundreds of songs, of course, and every reader will have his or her favourite few, but I think that it might be good to have a larger of number of songs with the CD in the next edition, hopefully including some of the following: Dear Hearts and Gentle People (later 'mellow' version), The Blizzard, Guilty, one or two religious songs (e.g. We Thank Thee, My Cathedral), one or two Afrikaans numbers (e.g. Tahiti, My Blinde Hart), and even one of the rare numbers mixing English and Afrikaans lines (e.g. The Old Kalahari, I'm Crying Again). The reviewer would also suggest some improvements to the main text. Some incident seem a bit doubtful as they stand, and could do with some filling in, where they seem at variance with Jim's general character. Another matter that could be improved is the detailed information which comes a little too thick and fast at times, and furthermore assumes readers to already have a good knowledge of country music. Hopefully such details will be more carefully selected, and their significance explained more fully, in the next edition, for which the reviewer wishes Professor Streissguth well.

Far from being a definitive account of the life and career of singer Jim Reeves, "From A Moth To A Flame" dwells on the negative aspects to his personality, which even then are often distorted or exaggerated. For instance, Streissguth describes Reeves as an unrepentant womanizer who abused his wife. To back up this damaging claim, he cites one mere source of questionable motivation, when many other and better sources would have been available to contradict this assertion. The author's bias in favor of writing a scandalous book instead of an accurate one is seen in the fact that, while he quotes extensively from an article the singer's widow wrote in 1966 about her recollections concerning Jim's death, he selectively fails to tell readers that in the same article she also glowingly described their marriage and said Jim was as a husband "perfection personified." How to reconcile such contradictions? A look at the author's sources offers a clue: He did not rely on true intimates -- people who worked with Reeves or socialized with him frequently. Instead, the author turns to people on the periphery of Reeves' life -- such a songwriter that he had a falling out with. There are other factual errors galore. For instance, the author says that Reeves was so frugal he paid his bandmembers poorly and laid them off between gigs. But other published accounts prove that Jim Reeves was a rarity in the music business at the time: He paid his band top dollar, kept them on a yearly retainer, and refused to perform anywhere without them. Time and time again the author fails to give Jim the credit he deserves. For example, Streissguth claims it was RCA's promotional efforts that turned Jim's recordings into hits. But Reeves told many an interviewer that he personally bought 500 to 1000 of his own recordings to send out to radio stations because he was so disgusted with his label's lack of support. The author's infatuation with singer Eddy Arnold surfaces throughout, as when he continually compares Arnold and Reeves. While Streissguth describes Eddy as the "pioneer of the Nashville Sound," this is a strange and unsupportable thesis, given the fact that of 34 recording sessions done by Arnold during the period between 1944 and 1954, only 7 were completed in Nashville (the rest occurring in places like New York). Jim Reeves, by comparison, ONLY recorded in Music City -- doing at least 66 sessions in a six-and-a-half year period there, and relying exclusively on Nashville musicians. Reeves also is the one who came up with the idea of borrowing pop arrangements to showcase his country songs -- while other artists like Arnold were still singing in a hillbilly fashion and dressing accordingly. Jim abandoned the rhinestones and fringed cowboy outfits in favor of tuxedos, dinner jackets and immaculately-tailored suits because, explained his widow Mary, he wanted to be able to go anywhere and be accepted. The author also neglects to show readers the truly international dimensions of Jim's career. His popularity worldwide to this day approaches cult status. There is even an industry record award named after him (won in recent years by Garth Brooks), because Jim Reeves was the FIRST truly international ambassador of country music. While the author describes numerous instances of what he labels as Jim's "ungraciousness", he doesn't tell readers that Jim's tact and diplomacy were such that he was even asked by the U.S. State Department to serve as one of their goodwill representatives on a tour to South Africa. The author takes small incidents, in which any reasonable person would be properly upset, and uses them to depict Jim as hot-tempered and unreasoning. One incident has Jim walking out on an unruly bunch of drunken G.I.s and refusing to peform; but what else was he to do? Another concerned a piano that was so broken down it was unplayable. Yet Jim's contract specified that each venue was to furnish an in-tune piano, as he only had a four piece band and a piano was an integral part of his sound. So whose failing was that? Surely not Jim's! Streissguth says Jim shortchanged an audience in Ireland by walking out after only a few numbers. But he either doesn't know or at least fails to tell his readers the rest of the story -- that an unscrupulous promoter had booked Jim in three venues per night, many miles apart, and so Jim and his band had to rush from one locale to another over very bad rural roads, not finishing some shows until after 4 a.m.! On the same night Streissguth says Jim disappointed fans at one town, Reeves performed for an hour-and-a-half at his next engagement, to glowing reviews. Also completely absent from this book is any recitation of the many, many charitable activities of Jim and his wife. He gave of himself on many occasions -- his time, his talent, his money. After trashing him throughout, the author manages in the final pages to make a fleeting reference to Jim¹s goodly nature, but it's almost as an afterthought. Those of us who knew Jim personally know that his good heart was so much a part of his gentlemanly nature. Streissguh is right in saying that Jim Reeves had the finest singing voice ever to emerge from Nashville. But there are so many gaps in this book, as well as outright inaccuracies and unsupportable theories, as to render it a poor caricature -- far from the truth on many points.

Quite a good read with a lot of historical data but doesnt provide a lot of insight into the character of this great singer. This could well be due to the passage of time making it hard to find people who really knew him. I would liked to have read more about what was life like on the road with Jim Reeves and surely there are better quality photos available.
But nonetheless worth a read for fans.

Considering his prominent status in country music history, it is surprising that this is the first in-depth biography of Jim Reeves. A biography on Reeves seems a natural progression for the author Streissguth, who had previously put out a book on Eddy Arnold Pioneer of the Nashville Sound). Reeves and Arnold were very similar musically: easy listening music marketed to a country audience, with Reeves rising to popularity in the early `50s - about a decade after Arnold. As revealed in this book, however, Reeves certainly did not possess a temperament similar to the easy going Arnold (more on that later).

Our story begins with an overly scholarly analysis of the Reeves ancestry. The author looks at the family tree from their arrival in this country in the 1600s through Jim's birth in 1923 in Texas. The book picks up as we progress through Reeves' destitute youth (the youngest of eight children raised by his siblings and widowed mother in a two-bedroom sharecropper's house) and his six-year career as a minor league ballplayer. Once the author moves into Jim's career as a disc jockey and popular musician, the book becomes enthralling.

Streissguth effectively conveys the contradictions in Reeves, the man. Known as Gentleman Jim for his polite demeanor and smooth voice, Reeves had a hot temper which made him a terror in the recording studios and, occasionally, on stage - when touring conditions were deemed less than acceptable (such as his overbooked tour of Ireland). He was loyal to his friends though and often turned over all of the earnings from a club date to his backup musicians when they were underpaid by the promoter. Reeves also tended towards impatience - a quality which probably contributed to his death in a plane crash at the age of 40 (flying his plane during a horrendous storm when he should have waited for it to pass).

Lurking in the background throughout this story and even more fascinating is Reeves' wife Mary. The reader learns that Jim cheated on Mary throughout their marriage. For whatever reasons, she choose to overlook this indescretion and it never
appeared to affect her devotion to him. Also discussed is Mary's effectiveness as Jim's manager, particularly after his death. She was instrumental in the regular reissues of Reeves' recordings (usually demo vocals overdubbed with new instrumentation) which charted prominently for over ten years after his death - a posthumous career unparalleled in music history even by Elvis Presley.

The inside back jacket of the book includes a 6-song CD of some of Reeves' biggest hits like "Four Walls" and "He'll Have To Go." This bonus provides a good tease that will leave you wanting to obtain a more thorough collection of Reeves' music.
The book itself, however, is the only Jim Reeves biography you'll ever need to read. It's an eventually compelling look at a complex individual.

This book falters where so many country and western bios do- it focuses more on Jim Reeves' generally petulant personality and not on his music. In the case of a one-hit wonder, or a musician who went into a LONG career decline, the focus on personal flaws might make for a satisfying read, but in a book about someone who managed to stay at the top (more or less) for more than a decade, it gets tiresome FAST. Colin Escott's Hank Williams bio (and Coal Miner's Daughter, come to think of it) both manage to integrate the unpleasant sides of the careers (and in Hank's case-personality) into the larger framework of what their music was/how it was created/significance of their careers etc....this book doesn't do that, which is unfortunate, as Mr. Reeves DID contribute more to Nashville than a series of anecdotes about how unpleasant he was would indicate. This is kind of the written equivalent of Sweet Dreams, the Patsy Cline movie that somehow managed to downplay her music while emphasising the (alleged) soap opera-like quality of her life- no one who wanted a Patsy Cline movie was principally interested in her MARRIAGE, no one who wants a Jim Reeves bio is principally interested in his PERSONALITY.

This book is NOT a factual portrayal of Jim Reeves. The author obviously did not exhaust all of the reliable sources that were at his disposal, and the ones he did choose to cite are of questionable creditability. One can only wonder why some potential sources refused to be interviewed by the author. His obsession with Eddy Arnold permeates the book, which, like his biography of Arnold, is quite boring. Some of the black & white photos that he used were equally dull.

However, the most irksome aspect of this biography is the fact that the author tries to portray Jim as being something he wasn't -- a blatant womanizer who was prone to erratic, unprovoked outbursts. On the contrary, Jim Reeve's nickname "Gentleman Jim" was well earned and not a mere "public relations image." Although there may have been times when he lost his temper -- he was human, after all --these were not unusual and are easily explained. Having spoken on many occasions with several people who knew him personally, including Blue Boys guitar player Leo Jackson, I can attest to the fact that he was nothing but a gentleman and a great man to work for.

Being the author of a website dedicated to Jim Reeves, I have resisted the urge to sensationalize my tribute to him. Perhaps those who are profit-motivated might feel otherwise. It is not uncommon these days for an author to emphasize the "hot" topics such as a subject's marital fidelity, etc. While I do not agree that such material about Jim needs to be "swept under the carpet," I do insist that it be factual, and not based upon the accounts of people who hardly knew him.

This book may be welcomed by the many thousands of Reeves fans that have waited so long for such a biography to be written. But in our haste to read something, anything, about him, we should not blindly accept what has been written by Mr. Streissguth, and those who would have us believe that his biography is accurate. "Hard core" fans like myself are not "disappointed with this book because it doesn't tell everything about Jim Reeves." We are disappointed because what it does tell is not only tedious to read, but it is also highly inaccurate.

I didn't realize exactly how world-famous Jim Reeves was until I read this book. It's a good depiction of his rise to fame. I don't know enough about his personality to comment on the accuracy of how he's portrayed here. I'm surprised that those close to him refused to comment. Faron Young's family and friends are being quite helpful in my research for his biography, and I'd expect that of anyone who wants an accurate biography. I've always liked the music of Jim Reeves. His enunciation impresses me-- unlike most singers who sound lazy by running words together. Of special note with this book is a 6-song CD as part of the package.

I feel this book is a great tribute to Jim Reeves. Although he had a perfect voice, he wasn't a perfect human being. Being a devoted fan, I would've liked to think so. However,that is not so.I think no less of my idol,because of the written truth. My opinion of Jim was already formed before I ever read anything about him. Mike Streissguth did a fantastic research and chose to share his knowledge with Jim's public. It is a great book and I, for one will cherish it along with Jim's memory and unique voice. Thanks Mike!! As Ever-Patricia Moore

I was reluctant to write a review about this book because there were so many comments by Jim Reeves fans that depicted this book as a horrible distortion of the real Jim Reeves.
Well, I have read many articles about Jim Reeves and I have come to the same conclusion that the author, Michael Streissguth, concludes in this book.
Jim was a very talented singer, performer, business man, and yet like so many other celebrities, he had his other side of life.
Jim, at times, could be arrogant, obnoxious, mean and downright vulgar when dealing with other people.
There is no bigger fan of Jim Reeves than I, but this book did not make me hate him or even diminision my love for the man and his music.
The author did an excellent job of describing how talented, loved and respected Jim was and yet at the same time he pointed out his weakness in dealing with his peers.
This is an excellent book for fans of Jim and no one will appreciate him less because the author told the entire story of this wonderful singer and performer.
Bill Comer of Orlando, Florida