When Jim "88" Rzepczynski was born in Chicago in November of 1959, who would have known that the musical roots and legacy of his native city would come to fuel a life-long musical thirst that to date has not been fully quenched. Jim started classical piano training around age 6 after his Dad, Ronald, brought home an old beat-up piano from a neighborhood tavern where he tended bar part-time. "You couldnt get me away from old piano; not for a minute." Jim recalls when his mother, Emily, tried to discipline him once by taking away his piano playing privileges for a day! "I went down in the basement and played it anyway, so she turned the basement light off on me! And, there I sat for another three hours in the dark still playing. She let me keep playing, but she kept the lights out just so I would always know who was really the boss!" 

 As Jims musical skills improved over years of continued piano lessons, the old piano would eventually be replaced by a new one, which eventually would get replaced by a Hammond Organ with Leslie rotating speaker. And his time devoted to his music instead of playing baseball in summer or hockey in winter would soon begin to pay off - literally.

"My parents would hold these poker games on Saturday nights, and instead of going out to play, I provided the live entertainment by taking their requests. And they kept me playing by filling the tip jar!" Jim realized then that music would be a permanent fixture in his life.

When Jim was around 15, influenced by 70s classic rock groups like Uriah Heep and Deep Purple, he was also becoming mesmerized by the evolving world of electronic music and musicians like Edgar Winter. Jim recalls weekends dragging his friends to all the area music stores to jam on the ARP and MOOG synthesizers. "I didnt know what I was doing, but on the old analog synths - you didnt have to know what you were doing to have fun! But if you knew what you were doing - there was nothing you couldnt do. By the time my dad traded the piano for the organ, I already knew where I wanted to go next with my music. And it wasnt playing in the living room."

While continuing to acquire equipment, and having survived puberty, Jim engaged the local garage band circuit. "I was always in a band in those days. And the names were always something ludicrous like A Band or Those Guys or Agent Orange or KO Bossy" (which Jim recalls was a Three Stooges Curly Howard character). Jims early bands were what you might expect from garage bands - "pretty bad sometimes " he recalls; "but I kept working the keyboard end, and moved from band to band gaining a lot of experience & playing a wide variety of musical styles."

Jim moved to Raleigh, North Carolina after graduating college in 1983, and his musical pursuits migrated to NC right with him. "I couldnt have been here (in Raleigh) a couple months before I was already playing in bands." Jim continued playing with various groups in the area when he received a phone call from a Richard . "Rich introduced himself and said he needed some Honky Tonk piano tracks put down in the studio for some original songs he was recording. I asked him what kind of music it was, and all he said was Country. There was about 30 seconds of dead silence. Then I finally said "Tell me more"

Jims piano playing and The Pearsall Brothers country music seemed to be a natural match. After the first session in the studio, the Pearsalls invited Jim to join the group. "My debut gig was in February 2000. "Rich asked me at the gig if I could do another show the following week. I asked him where, and he said to open for Toby Keith. My jaw hit the floor." "We still laugh about opening for a national act on my second gig" Jim chuckles, and the band has hit the road even harder since then - playing local area bars and restaurants, honky tonks and performing for private and community events all over North Carolina. 

When asked who he would like to thank, Jim couldnt keep the list short enough to print. "I thank God for my talent and my parents for their support and unconditional love. I thank my Mom for her persistence and encouragement to take all those lessons and keep practicing, and my Dad for taking me out to the clubs at an early age to see bands perform, and his love of the Hammond organ which is now an integral part of my music today. But mainly, I thank my wife Suzanne and daughter Michelle who have always supported my music and the sacrifices they each have made on my bahalf."

Jims musical career has spanned nearly 40 years, and the Pearsall Brothers Band remains a large part of it. "Ho Ho says hes the fourth brother, so I must be the fifth! But order doesnt matter. We ride as one" as Jim always tells Richard, Chris and Steve.

 Jim closed by thanking all the many musicians he has played with over the years, and for all the folks who have come to see him play. "The audience gives me the determination to give the best show I can - and I hope I have always made it worth their while."