Wild Jimbos

Jimmy Ibbotson joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1969. He left the group in 1976, and his solo career got off to an admittedly slow start. “I had no act,” he explained. “I’d get to the place where it was time for an instrumental solo, where I’d turn around and say ‘Take it,’ and no one took it. After about three months, Jimmy Ratts showed up in the Keystone ski area and announced that I was now in a duo with him. He had a big van and a PA system and would print up posters, and that sounded irresistible to me. We toured the Colorado ski areas for about three years, making a circuit between Breckenridge, Telluride and Aspen. Then Jim Salestrom showed up and started playing with us.”

The three formed Wild Jimbos.

Ibbotson returned to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1983 and remained a full-time member, playing a pivotal role in the group’s emergence as a country act. Jim Ratts took his Denver-based band, Runaway Express, all around the US and into Scandinavia, opening for such acts as Steve Martin, the Earl Scruggs Review and Pure Prairie League. Starting in 1984, Runaway Express began a 25-year run of Saturday shows at Evergreen’s Little Bear plus a 7-year run of Saturday morning performances at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Salli Severing would become Ratts’ wife and singing partner. Runaway Express won Westword magazine’s readers poll for Best Dance Band and Best Country Band. Jim Salestrom toured the world, working over 250 dates a year as lead guitarist and harmony singer in Dolly Parton’s band.

Nevertheless, Wild Jimbos continued to convene, with Salestrom on lead guitar, Ratts on bass and Ibbotson playing just “the feet” of a drum kit—the bass drum and high-hat cymbal—while holding a guitar in his lap. “The thing that’s fun about Wild Jimbos onstage is that you can tell they know a few songs, but the rest of the time it’s like a jam session where people who have seen us and probably have better memories than we do suggest songs that, in their confusion, they thought the band had done.”

For their 1991 self-titled debut album, Wild Jimbos enlisted the help of Sam (Sambo) Bush, founding member of the progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival. They had a hit video of the single “Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian” in heavy rotation on CMT and TNN cable TV; Ralph Emory of the Nashville Now TV show played along with their lighthearted antics. Bush was taken by Ratts’ song “Howlin’ At The Moon,” which he made the title track of his 1998 bluegrass album. It went to #3 on the National Bluegrass Chart and held there for 3 months; Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine ranked it the #79 bluegrass song of the decade.”

Wild Jimbos reunited in 1994 for the acoustic-based Americana album Wild Jimbos Two. They also made a cameo on Runaway Express’ Buddy Holly tribute album, 2000’s Yeah, Buddy! Ibbotson again departed the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 2009. Salestrom passed away in 2023. Runaway Express continues to play occasional shows while making new music in Ratts’ home studio. Runaway Express’ long history of recording includes a series of early ‘80s cassette releases, several country rock albums of Buddy Holly covers and presentations of multi-layered audio collages (2020’s Celebrate Woodstock).