Career
While prominent in the 1970s for his records "Spiders & Snakes", "Swamp Witch", "Under The Scotsman"s Kilt", "My Girl Bill", and "Wildwood Weed", Stafford has headlined at his own theater in Branson, Missouri, since 1990. Stafford is self-taught on guitar, fiddle, piano, banjo, organ and harmonica. Stafford was raised in Winter Haven, Florida.
Stafford"s first chart hit was "Swamp Witch", produced by Lobo, which cracked the United States. Top 40 in July 1973.
On March 2, 1974 his biggest hit, "Spiders & Snakes", peaked at Number. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, selling over two million copies, earning a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. that month.
Stafford continued to have moderate chart success through most of 1975. Stafford contributed to several movie soundtracks.
He received a gold record for his work on the Disney movie, The Fox and the Hound.
He wrote "Cow Patti" for the Clint Eastwood movie Any Which Way You Can and appeared in the movie. His work has been covered by George Jones and Jerry Reed. His second classical guitar album, Somewhere in Time appeared in March 2002.
His most recent comedy album was Don"t Tell Mama I"m A Guitar Picker, She Thinks I"m Just In Jail.
In 2010, he produced and recorded his first Christmas album, A Guitar Foreign Christmas. Stafford has operated and performed at the Jim Stafford Theatre in Branson, Missouri since 1990.
Stafford also currently tours during the winter months. As of April 2015 Jim Stafford is back playing at the Jim Stafford Theatre (wwwjimstaffordticketscom).
