Jimmie Don Bates was born in Austin, Texas and began playing the fiddle at the age of 11. He learned Texas style fiddle from Garland Gainer. When he turned 13 he met Bennie Thomason at the State Championship contest in Hallettsville and began to study under him at Red Oak, Texas. The next year Jimmie Don became the youngest person to win the Texas Old Time Fiddlers Association championship in Burnett and he has won that contest many times since. In 1983 he won the Texas State Championship and began teaching fiddle. In 1987 he became the third Texan to win the National Championship in Weiser, Idaho. He has won the World Championship contest at Crockett, Texas five times in a row, and he has won the Texas State Championship contest seven times. In 1995 Jimmie Don was elected President of the Texas Old Time Fiddlers Association and in 1997 he was inducted into the Fiddlers Frolics Hall of Fame. Jimmie Don now lives in Austin, Texas and it is obvious that Texas fiddling will dominate Jimmie Don Bates, the first of a new generation of Texas Fiddlers, for all his years to come.