JIM RHODES -- PRODUCING QUALITY RECORDS FOR BIG NAMES

Jim Rhodes of Jackson spends many hours in front of the production console. He has a long career in record production.

From 1958 to 1967, Jim Rhodes' piano playing was a regular feature on KFVS-TV's "Breakfast Show."

Have a conversation with Jim Rhodes and he could talk about Garth Brooks and KISS. An odd combination, but he's worked with them both, along with many other big names. Rhodes has a career in record production that has spanned decades.

"I was forced into it," Rhodes said of his start in the business. "I needed a job."

His career has taken him to Springfield, Mo., Tulsa, Okla., and Nashville, Tenn. Since 1986, Rhodes has been living in Jackson with his wife, Ruth, a teacher at Franklin School in Cape Girardeau.

Rhodes is straightforward about his philosophy of making a good recording.

"The audience is boss," Rhodes said. "But you've got to please everybody. Usually you will if you have a national product when you're finished."

Rhodes graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1959 with majors in music and fine arts, and a bachelor in education. He got his start in commercial writing and production in 1960 with Versatile Television Production, which was a television production company located in the old KFVS-TV studio.

From 1958 to 1967, Jim Rhodes' piano playing was a regular feature on KFVS-TV's "Breakfast Show."

He also had a job as an animation artist. It was a friend who suggested to Rhodes that he should devote more time to record producing. Dr. A. Wesley Tower, who came to teach at Southeast from Nashville, encouraged Rhodes to go into recording production full time. Tower had many national recognitions as a writer and producer of music for television.

Rhodes took Tower's reccomendation very seriously. With help from a local attorney friend, he put together a recording studio in Cape Girardeau, the first professional facility between St. Louis and Memphis.

In 1975 Rhodes moved to Springfield and worked as a co-owner and in-house producer-engineer for American Artists. Later that same year, he was invited to do production with the Tulsa Studios -- a newly established film company and recording studio. The studio there was the largest scoring film stage in the U.S. at that time.

In 1977 Rhodes came on board full-time with Tulsa Studios as head of the recording division and in-house producer. Some projects recorded there included Ronnie Dunn of Brooks and Dunn, Garth Brooks, the New York City Opera Co., Roy Clark and KISS.

Through this job he even worked on film projects and he is credited with producton on "Tex" by Walt Disney, "The Outsiders," and "Rumblefish" by Warner Bros. and Francis Ford Coppala.

"I watched those kids grow up," Rhodes said of the child stars in these films. "I had to tell them to keep their hands off the knobs."

In 1982 he became president and in-house engineer for Column One and Column Two Music Publishing Co.'s and Column One Records which launched careers of several artists including Boxcar Willie, Jeanie Bryant and Jolene Sparks.

Rhodes had even forgotten he had worked with Garth Brooks until someone reminded him. He recalls the story of the person who reminded him:

"He said, 'He was the guy with the little ball cap. His sister played bass.' And then I remembered him.

"The thing to keep in mind is that these people have their ups and downs like everyone else."

In 1984, Rhodes helped open the first fully professional recording studio in Branson, named Ironside Recording Studios, which is now called Caravelle.

There, he engineered projects for Branson artists, including Pat Boone's Christmas Special done in Silver Dollar City in 1985.

In 1986, Rhodes moved to Jackson, and made an effort to start a new professional audio products division. In 1989-90, he worked in Myrtle Beach, S.C., to take on the position of music director and producer for the Carolina Opry and Dixie Jubilee Music Shows.

In 1991, Rhodes designed the new Alabama Theatre with architects Tom Pegram Associates.

He was a voting member of the Grammy Award Board for 15 years until retiring from the board in 1993.

His most recent achievement was producing a gospel album that won first place at the Hearts Aflame Awards Contest.

James Baker, a policeman with the Rogersville, Ark., police force is a gospel music performer and writer. He's also the praise and worship minister of his church in Bentonville.

He contacted Rhodes to produce a gospel album for him at "Country Studios" in Pineville.

"He called me to come in -- I'd done work for him before -- to produce the album."

Rhodes used musicians out of Branson and Oklahoma City for the project. Baker entered the title song into the Hearts Aflame Awards Contest and the Trinity Broadcast Networks Annual Spirit Fest Week.

Rhodes says he knew it was a hit song the first time he heard it.

"You can tell if a song is there or not," he said. "It gets such you can hear 30 seconds of a song and know whether or not you have a song.

"This song was waiting to happen."

Out of some 86 national entries James Baker won first place.

"I knew when one of the judges applauded, which they're not supposed to do, that he had one. I suspected the other 85 knew, too."

After the release of this album produced by Rhodes, Baker is signed to Zion Records as part of his prize. The record should be in the local gospel books and music stores by middle of June.

At this point in his life, Rhodes says that working with gospel music is a pleasure.

A man who has chosen such a disjointed path begs the question: Any regrets?

"Who knows?" Rhodes said, shrugging. "I am not unhappy doing what I do. Most people kind of gravitate to a certain career because of a circumstance. I was heading into teaching. People eventually find themselves a long way from where they started."