James Carothers

Nashville honky-tonk crooner James Carothers is best known for his stone-country originals and spot-on impressions of some of country music’s greatest icons.

James has performed in Nashville since 2015, having played over 2500 shows at venues like AJ’s Good Time Bar, Martin’s BBQ, The Nashville Palace, and Music City Bar when he’s not on the road. He enjoys playing at fairs, festivals, bars, corporate events, and private events across the United States and has also traveled to Canada, Japan, Scotland, Norway, Lichtenstein, Brazil, and the Faroe Islands for shows.

James released his latest single, “Muscadine Wine,” in 2024. Previous releases include several singles and albums Whatcha Got Left (2021), Songs & Stories (2019), Still Country, Still King: A Tribute to George Jones (2018), Relapse (2017), and Honky Tonk Land (2014).

Raised in rural Tennessee, Carothers grew up leading acapella singing each Sunday at the Church of Christ. His father, Jim, was a hobby songwriter who landed a song he wrote on the Grand Ole Opry (Puttin’ On the Dog, performed by Mike Snider). Jim recorded some studio albums in Nashville before moving the family out west for work while his son was still in grade school. Inspired by his dad, James always toyed with songwriting and began playing his shows in local honky-tonks around New Mexico during his teens and 20s. Meanwhile, he married, started a family, and paid the bills as a technician at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, working where the atomic bomb was created.