Jim Payne

Who is Jim Payne?

Jim Payne is a Newfoundland folk singer, best known for performing and recording many of the traditional sea shanties of Newfoundland culture. He also composed the song "Wave Over Wave" with Janis Spence and founded the record label SingSong Inc.

Payne was born in Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland. He plays guitar, diatonic accordion, mandolin, tin whistle, and violin, and is a singer, storyteller, actor, writer, stepdancer, and teacher of traditional Newfoundland set and square dances.

Payne performs regularly with Fergus O'Byrne and with the band A Crowd of Bold Sharemen. He is also one half of the musical comedy duo, "Sods'n Rhymes," with Glenn Downey.

He has directed, composed, and performed music, as well as creating soundtracks for plays, documentaries and videos. He has performed on radio and television in Canada and abroad, and has toured throughout Canada, the US, Europe, Japan and Australia.

His recordings range from original solo efforts, to contributions to anthologies of Newfoundland music. He also owns a recording company, "SingSong Inc.", which provides support and production work for recordings by other Newfoundland artists.