James Gideon "Gid" Tanner (June 6, 1885 – May 13, 1960) was an American old-time fiddler and one of the earliest stars of what would come to be known as country music.

[2] He learned to play the fiddle at the age of 14 and quickly established a reputation as one of the finest musicians in Georgia.

[7] Many of the songs recorded by the Skillet Lickers were traditional American fiddle tunes that remain popular with bluegrass and country musicians to this day.

Among them are "Alabama Jubilee", "Shortnin' Bread", "Old Joe Clark", "John Henry", "Bully of the Town", "Bile Them Cabbage Down", "Cotton-Eyed Joe", "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss", "Soldier's Joy", "Bonaparte's Retreat", "Leather Breeches", "Four Cent Cotton", "Knoxville Girl", and their biggest seller, "Down Yonder".

Phil Tanner hosts an open jam session on Friday nights in a refurbished chicken house on his father's old farm in Dacula, Georgia.