Ridgefield High School Freshman Has Top 40 Hit Song

Ridgefield High School freshman Jimy Bishop has been busy writing and recording new music while stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Jimy optimistically released a song titled “Take It to the Streets” earlier this year and has been unexpectedly but quite pleasantly surprised by the public reaction.  The song is currently #27 on the New Music Weekly Top 40 Chart and #36 on the New Music Weekly Hot 100 Chart.  The Official Music Video for “Take It to the Streets” can be viewed on YouTube at https://youtu.be/bvyEc3S8w4o.

On Monday, March 8th, “Take It to the Streets” will be featured on the national radio show/competition New Music Monday at 8:05 PM Eastern.  “Take It to the Streets” will be the second song on the show and can be streamed at www.wnheradio.com.  Listeners may vote as many times as they wish by calling 1-615-492-1777 during the one-hour long program and saying “Take It to the Streets” by Jimy Bishop when the request line recording answers.  Votes may also be cast by text at the same phone number.

What was the inspiration for “Take It to the Streets”?  In Jimy’s own words, “I wrote this song because of everything I see going on in the news…I think everyone should come together in peaceful unity…like John Lennon said, Give Peace a Chance.”

The 14-year-old musician has lived in Ridgefield since age 1 and is best known as a guitarist, singer and songwriter.  Jimy’s music career began at age 8 when he started taking guitar lessons at School of Rock in Ridgefield as well as Guitar Hangar in Brookfield, Connecticut.  By age 9, Jimy formed his first band, 2 Minute Minors, a power punk trio which he fronted on guitar/vocals along with two of his hockey team buddies on bass and drums.

In April 2017 at age 10, Jimy burst onto the local rock ‘n’ roll scene when 2 Minute Minors was selected as a finalist in the Middle School category of the annual BandJam competition hosted by regional performing arts center, The Ridgefield Playhouse.  Jimy was a fifth grader at Veterans Park Elementary School at the time.  As a result of his dynamic performance at BandJam, Jimy was featured on an episode of the TV show Wonderama.

In addition to his solo work, Jimy is a member of Freedom Rockets, a guitar-based band combining punk, alternative and classic rock sounds which Jimy formed in 2019.  Freedom Rockets was selected as a finalist in the High School category of the 2019 BandJam competition and received rave reviews from competition judges Kimberley Locke (singer/songwriter and former American Idol finalist), Shep Goodman (multi-platinum record producer and songwriter), Aaron Accetta (multi-platinum record producer and songwriter), Wayne Forte (President & Senior Agent, Entourage Talent Associates) and Ethan Carey (Host of the i95 Ethan and Lou Morning Radio Show).  Jimy was an eighth grader at East Ridge Middle School at the time.

Jimy’s mentors include Richie Scarlet (Frehley's Comet, the Ace Frehley Band, Mountain, Sebastian Bach, Peter Criss, Charlie Gracie, Chubby Checker and many more), Roger Filgate (Wishbone Ash) and multi-platinum songwriter Frankie Vinci who was a member of 1970s supergroup Fotomaker along with bassist Gene Cornish and drummer Dino Danelli, former members of The Rascals, as well as guitarist/vocalist Wally Bryson, formerly of Raspberries and guitarist/vocalist Lex Marchesi.  Frankie co-wrote and produced Jimy’s current single “Take It to the Streets”.

Jimy’s band, Freedom Rockets, performs regularly at venues throughout Connecticut and New York including The Ridgefield Playhouse (Ridgefield, Connecticut), The Wall Street Theater (Norwalk, Connecticut) and The Chance Theater (Poughkeepsie, New York).