About Me
Sweet Jimmy (AKA Jim Kopp) has been performing as a solo singer/songwriter for 12 years. He began his illustrious career playing small venues around the northwest suburbs of Chicago (where he was attending Wheaton College at the time), including such exclusive VIP rooms as His Grandmother's Living Room, Her Next-Door Neighbor's Backyard, and one very intimate, impromptu, soulful performance in the Denny's on Schmale Parking Lot, playing to a capacity crowd of hard-core fans and a few homeless persons until the cops showed up.
He moved to CA after school, and eventually settled in the general Huntington/Newport area, where he's been ever since. He immediately set about making himself a permanent fixture in the local OC music scene, playing anywhere they didn't ask him to leave, including the Blue Beet, Margaritaville, Woody's Wharf, Rudy's, the Tiki Bar (when it was the Tiki Bar), Kelly McCue's, Gallagher's, Harpoon Henry's, and occasionally the Rusty Pelican and Billy's. He's had a regular job at Regatta Cafe in Newport for the last several years, and can still be seen there 6 nights a week (every night except Tuesday) bartending, waiting tables, and singing everything from Sinatra to Elton John to John Mayer to the Love Boat theme.
He has scaled back his public performances in the last 2 years as he has started his own entertainment company specializing in private parties, weddings, corporate events, and fundraisers, and featuring an impressive list of private clientele that reads like a Who's Who of People Who Drink Positively Heroically.
A few years ago his songwriting career experienced a major breakthrough as he was discovered and signed to a 3-year development deal by independent record label Jonny Grind Records. "Jonny Grind is a great new label," says Jimmy. "They're absolutely on the cutting edge of the contemporary singer/songwriter genre. They're very new, very hip, very underground, and they're looking at several promising new artists that even the underground music scene hasn't heard of yet. In addition, and most importantly for me, they have provided me with a loose outline of objectives for the next few years of my career, but have allowed me to retain almost complete creative control over my projects. They are helpful, supportive, intuitive, and creatively brilliant, but never obnoxious or overbearing, being gracious enough to leave that up to me. We're definitely going places together." After signing with Jonny Grind, Jimmy went right to work, recording and producing his debut CD Serious This Time in only a few months, and some days even getting up before noon. It's a 16-track, 75-minute solo acoustic CD featuring 13 covers and 3 originals. It was released about 2 years ago, and Jimmy went right back to work writing for his next project, an all-original full-band CD. After writing and fine-tuning 3 new songs, it was right back into the studio for the original full-band debut, Wake Up And Breathe, which saw a limited release about a year ago, and featured Josh Schreiber (Royl Jelly, Blue Machine) on percussion and John McKnight (Ben Harper, Fishbone) on bass.
Check this site periodically for updates on the full-scale release of Wake Up And Breathe, and contact Sweet Jimmy to reserve your copy ahead of time, or to inquire about how/where to purchase Serious This Time. You can check out some of the music from Wake Up And Breathe right here on this site. You can check out all Sweet Jimmy's music at www.entertainmentbyjimmy.com, which is under construction, but should be finished whenever Jonny A damn well feels like it.
Happy Surfing and Fight the Power."I'm a driver, I'm a winner; things are gonna change I can feel it."I've been uploading video of recent live shows on youtube, please check out the following links when you get a chance:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hdXDFxW0jEhttp://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=6hcTQpG-90Qhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=tjeR7C9RM58http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4dExt8c7Uo
