The Tally Sheet For Who Is Gone--Sad List

[Thomps2525]

Flamboyant Music Producer Huey Meaux Dead At 82
Terry Wallace, Associated Press – April 24 2011, 11:15 pm ET

Huey P. Meaux, who discovered recording artists Doug Sahm and Barbara Lynn before scandal and prison ended Meaux's career, died April 23 of multiple organ failure at his Southeast Texas home in Winnie, about 60 miles east of Houston. He was 82.

In addition to discovering Lynn and San Antonio-born singer-songwriter Sahm, leader of the Sir Douglas Quintet, Meaux revived the recording career of Freddy Fender. Meaux produced Fender's chart-topper Before The Next Teardrop Falls.

In 1996, police raided Meaux's studio in Houston and found hundreds of videotapes and photos of him having sex with underage girls. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to molesting a teenage girl and other charges. He was released four years ago.

[Thomps2525]

Hazel Dickens, bluegrass pioneer and social activist, dies at 75
Keith Thursby, Los Angeles Times, April 30 2011

Hazel Dickens, a singer, songwriter and musician from West Virginia who was a pioneering force in bluegrass music and a strong and eloquent voice for coal miners, the poor and women, died at 75 on April 22 at a Washington, DC, hospice of complications from pneumonia.

Dickens became a fixture on the bluegrass circuit in the 1960s and '70s with her musical partner, Alice Gerrard, and continued as a solo artist. She also was highly respected as a folk and country musician.

Hazel Jane Dickens was born June 1, 1935, in Montcalm, WV, and raised in poverty, the eighth of 11 children. Her father delivered timber to coal mines and was a Primitive Baptist minister. Musical instruments were not allowed inside the church. "You learn to listen to the lyrics and to the melody," she told the Charleston Gazette in 1996. "I never thought about it until I got away from home. I used to feel instruments got in the way of listening to the melody and the lyrics. I think it's very beautiful to hear that many voices, untrained, singing from the heart and soul."

She moved to Baltimore as a teenager. In the 1950s Dickens met and started performing with Mike Seeger, the half brother of folk singer Pete Seeger. Her association with Mike Seeger led to her teaming with Gerrard. Dickens continued as a solo artist after she and Gerrard dissolved their partnership in the mid-1970s.

Her music was featured in Harlan County, USA, Barbara Kopple's 1976 Oscar-winning documentary about Kentucky coal miners. She also appeared and sang in Matewan, John Sayles' 1987 film about labor organizing in a mining town.

Her many honors included a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. A tribute album is being prepared with artists such as Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and the Judds performing Dickens' songs. A new album by Dickens is close to being released by Rounder Records.

[Thomps2525]

Jack Barlow Dead at 87
Beville Darden, TheBoot.com, Aug 1 2011 4:00PM

Jack Barlow, one of country music's most beloved jack-of-all-trades, died July 29 after a long illness. He was 87. Barlow started his career singing in local clubs in his hometown of Muscatine, Iowa, upon his return from serving in the Navy in World War II. His soothing baritone caught the attention of the owner of KWPC radio, who saw Jack perform at a local Kiwanis club and then tracked him down on his parents' farm. "I was sitting on a tractor, and he offered me a job as a radio announcer," the singer recalled to the Muscatine Journal in a 2008 interview. "My dad needed my help on the farm, so I asked him, 'Whattaya think, Pop?' and my dad said, 'I tell you one thing, boy, nobody's going to hear you sing on the tractor behind that hedgerow.'"

After stints at two different radio stations, Jack finally found himself on the other side of the airwaves after moving to Nashville at the age of 40 to pursue his dream. He was signed to Dial Records and quickly became a staple at the Grand Ole Opry. Jack had several hits throughout the 1960s, including I Love Country Music, Birmingham Blues and Catch The Wind. He continued to record into his golden years, releasing his final album, I Live the Country Songs I Sing, in 2007.

The 6'4" singer also had a few hits under the name Zoot Fenster, the biggest being 1975's The Man On Page 602. The novelty song was inspired by the true story of an underwear model pictured in a 1970s Sears catalog. The photo showed what some argued was a bit too much of the model, but Sears insisted it was just a shadow. Jack, who did not write the song, was too embarrassed to record it under his own name. So, his buddy D.J. Fontana, a former drummer for Elvis Presley, suggested he record it under the phony name. It went on to become a Top 30 hit.

Yet another job came to Jack in the 1970s, after he sang a now iconic commercial jingle for Big Red chewing gum. That gig led to literally thousands of voiceover jobs for the singer, including ads for Budweiser and Busch beers, Chrysler, Dodge, Kraft and Kelloggs.

Barlow is survived by his wife, Dianne, seven children and several grandchildren. A public memorial service will be held August 13 at 5:00 PM CT at the Harpeth Hills Memorial Garden Funeral Home in Nashville.

[GoHawkeyes]

http://www.kentucky.com/2011/07/12/1808523/letcher-native-took-fiddle-playing.html

Bluegrass great Kenny Baker dies at age 85
letcher native made mark with Bill Monroe's bluegrass band
By Jennifer Hewlett jhewlett@herald-leader.com



When Kenny Baker played the fiddle, the notes flowed out like honey pours from a jar — smooth, thick and wide, according to his friends.
"All your great fiddle players in Nashville, when they heard Kenny, they knew there was a lot more to be had with a fiddle, a lot more to learn," said Ronnie Eldridge, a close friend.
"He was the best at hoedowns. Nobody could touch him on the waltz. He was a singer's dream," Eldridge said.
Mr. Baker, 85, a Letcher County native who spent many years performing with legendary bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, penned 92 instrumentals and tutored many others in his "long bow" fiddling style, died Friday, just a few days after his last jam session. Mr. Baker, who lived near Gallatin, Tenn., died of complications from a stroke.
Mr. Baker first picked up a fiddle when he was 5, according to his son, Kenneth Baker Jr., of Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Baker's father had been an old-time fiddle player.
Mr. Baker later turned to the guitar, but he eventually went back to the fiddle. He grew up inspired by jazz, his son said.
After joining the Navy during World War II, Mr. Baker was soon transferred off a destroyer escort ship to entertain troops in the South Pacific. After military service, he returned home to Letcher County, got married, worked in coal mines and played at barn dances on weekends.
He started playing the fiddle professionally with country musician Don Gibson in 1953. Mr. Baker went from playing Western swing and dance-band tunes to bluegrass music, performing with Monroe, who is known as the father of bluegrass music, beginning in 1957. After a few years, he went back to the coal mines in Eastern Kentucky. He returned to Monroe's Blue Grass Boys band in 1968 and left again in 1984, but he was reunited with the band in 1994 at Monroe's Bean Blossom bluegrass festival.
Monroe's well-known "Uncle Pen" album features Mr. Baker on the fiddle.
"He was just absolutely the backbone of that band," Eldridge said.
"They were at the White House one time. Bill Monroe's group was invited by Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter," Kenneth Baker Jr. said. "He liked to say when Rosalynn had a request, she came to Dad."
Many people went to bluegrass music festivals to hear Kenny Baker play the fiddle as much as they went to hear Bill Monroe sing, bluegrass music great Bobby Osborne said.
Many great fiddlers, past and present, are indebted to Baker, said Osborne, who performed with Mr. Baker and shared a dressing room with him at the Grand Ole Opry.
"I couldn't single him out as the top player of all time, but a lot of people would," Osborne said.
Mr. Baker's son said technique and a great memory made his father stand out.
"Dad would use the bow from tip to tip. That made his fiddling so smooth, and that was something different in the bluegrass world," Kenneth Baker Jr. said. "It was all by ear, and he had a tremendous ability to recall just about any song that people asked for — hundreds of songs."
Mr. Baker was particularly proud of the songs he wrote and recorded, his son said.
"At any of the major fiddle contests, probably a third of the tunes played will be Bill Baker tunes," Eldridge said.
Said Osborne: "The tunes that he wrote, they were so down to earth. The melodies that he put to his tunes were so easy to learn."
After 1984, Mr. Baker performed in many shows with dobro great Josh Graves.
In 1993, Mr. Baker received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1999, he was named to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in Owensboro.
In addition to his son, Mr. Baker is survived by his wife, Audrey Baker; another son, Johnny Lee Baker of Nashville; two sisters; a brother; four grandchildren; and several great- and great-great-grandchildren.
Services will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Burdine Freewill Baptist Church in Letcher County. Carty Funeral Homes in Jenkins is handling arrangements.

[Thomps2525]

I hadn't heard about Baker's death. It seems that our local big-city newspapers don't report on deaths of bluegrass performers. Here is the obituary from Variety:

Bluegrass great Kenny Baker dies
Christopher Morris, Variety, July 11 2011

Influential bluegrass fiddler Kenny Baker, a mainstay of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys for 23 years, died July 8 in Gallatin, Tennessee, after suffering a stroke. He was 85. No musician enjoyed a longer tenure in Monroe's groundbreaking bluegrass ensemble. Baker debuted behind the vocalist-mandolinist in December 1957 and did four tours of duty with the Blue Grass Boys.

As Monroe's biographer Richard D. Smith wrote, "Baker had considerable western swing influences, but it was his knowledge of old-time fiddling and his advancement of it to a near-classical form that enraptured Monroe." The bandleader invariably introduced Baker onstage as "the greatest fiddler in bluegrass music."

Born near Jenkins, Kentucky, Baker was the son of an old-time fiddler but he counted swing musicians Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller and hot jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli among his influences. He played semi-professionally in eastern Kentucky during the '40s, but made his living primarily as a coal miner and farmer. He joined Monroe's unit after breaking in with country singer Don Gibson on Knoxville radio station WNOX.

The dour Baker brought great virtuosity and a smooth, jazzy sensibility to Monroe's music. He was featured prominently on the bandleader's dream project, an album of fiddle tunes played by Monroe's uncle Pendleton Vandiver; recorded over a three-year period and released in 1972, Bill Monroe's Uncle Pen is considered a classic of the genre and one of Monroe's finest works.

Baker - who chafed at the low wages paid by Monroe and left the Blue Grass Boys three times to return to mining - exited the group abruptly, after 16 consecutive years in the band, when he walked offstage in the middle of a concert in Jemison, Alabama, in 1984. The two musicians reconciled in 1994, when Baker appeared at Monroe's Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival. (Monroe died in 1996.)

Already established as a leader via a series of albums for David Freeman's County Records, Baker soon began a decade-long partnership with dobro player Uncle Josh Graves in 1984. He received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1993 and was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 1999. In the 2000s, he recorded for the OMS label.

[GoHawkeyes]

http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1668674/johnny-cash-bassist-marshall-grant-dies-at-age-83.jhtml

Bassist Marshall Grant, a founding member of Johnny Cash's Tennessee Two band, died Sunday (Aug. 7) at a Jonesboro, Ark., hospital after suffering an apparent aneurysm while in town for the Johnny Cash Music Festival.

The 83-year-old musician became ill Wednesday (Aug. 3) after attending rehearsals for a Thursday night concert featuring Kris Kristofferson, George Jones, Rodney Crowell and Cash's daughter, Rosanne Cash, and son, John Carter Cash, among others. He was scheduled to speak about Johnny Cash's early recordings during the concert at Arkansas State University.

With Cash's rhythm guitar and lead guitarist Luther Perkins' distinctive single-note playing, Grant helped develop the "boom chicka boom" style that became a signature of Cash's early recordings. Cash died in 2003. Perkins died in 1968 following a house fire after he apparently fell asleep with a lit cigarette.

Raised in North Carolina, Grant moved to Memphis, Tenn., in 1947 and teamed with Cash and Perkins in 1954. Originally a guitar player, he switched to bass and later served as Cash's road manager while playing in his band in the '60s and '70s. Grant performed on Cash's original recordings of classics such as "I Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire" and "Sunday Morning Coming Down." He also played on two of Cash's most famous albums -- At Folsom Prison (1968) and At San Quentin (1969). He left Cash's band in 1980.

"Had Dad not had Marshall, he wouldn't have had the 'Johnny Cash sound,' and he wouldn't have become all that he was, in his fullness," Rosanne Cash told The Tennessean newspaper. "And I wouldn't have become a songwriter or a musician. There's a whole lineage that wouldn't have happened."

"He and Luther were automobile mechanics when they met my dad," John Carter Cash told the newspaper. "None of the three were educated in music whatsoever, but that's part of the magic of it -- that innocence behind their sound."

Grant's autobiography, I Was There When It Happened: My Life With Johnny Cash was published in 2006. A year later, the Tennessee Two became an inaugural inductee of the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville.

Grant resided in Hernando, Miss. Funeral arrangements are pending.

[GoHawkeyes]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ap-us-music-obit-gramme,0,7912976.story


NASHVILLE, Tenn.— Billy Grammer, whose 1958 hit "Gotta Travel On"' hit the top of the charts and led to a long career on the Grand Ole Opry, has died. He was 85.

Grammer died Wednesday morning in his home state of Illinois of natural causes, according to a statement from Grand Ole Opry spokeswoman Jessie Schmidt. He had suffered a heart attack in late March 2011 while visiting Plano, Texas.

A singer and guitarist who also was a Nashville recording session musician, Grammer performed regularly on the Grand Ole Opry beginning in 1959.

"Gotta Travel On," adapted from a British folk tune, was a million-seller and the first hit for Nashville's Monument Records and its famed founder, Fred Foster. It was a hit on the pop, country and rhythm & blues charts.

Grammer also designed guitars, and a brand of flat-top came from a company he started in the 1960s. He donated his first model to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1969.

His other hits included "Bonaparte's Retreat" and he had his own syndicated television series in 1965.

A much sought-after session man, he played guitar in recording sessions for Patti Page, Louis Armstrong, Eddy Arnold and many others.

"I've got a little more of a broad sense of music than the average guy coming up playing country music," Grammer said once, according to his profile on the Grand Ole Opry website. "Musicians I have talked to through the years have told me that I have a little extra punch, a little extra push."

Grammer delivered the invocation for the opening of a new Grand Ole Opry House in 1974 with then President Richard Nixon in attendance.

The eldest of 13 children in a coal-mining family in Benton, Ill., Grammer spent his childhood on a farm, fishing the Wabash River and dreaming of becoming a mechanical engineer.

After high school he served in the Army and took on an apprenticeship as a toolmaker. He made his way to Washington, D.C., where he was hired in the bands of Hawkshaw Hawkins and Grandpa Jones. He also appeared as a guitarist on Jimmy Dean's television show.

He then formed his own band and began performing as a solo artist.

[Phil Grocholl]

Oh man, I loved that song "Gotta Travel On", I sing it all the time, and it's one of my favorite songs. RIP Billy Grammar, you will be missed.

[CTGuy]

[Thomps2525]

I'm reminded of the schoolboy who tells his teacher, "I ain't got no pencil no more." The teacher says, "Where is your grammar?" The boy replies, "She's home, baking a pie."

In late 1962 Billy Grammer recorded a Mel Tillis-Danny Dill song, I Wanna Go Home. It got to #18 on Billboard's country chart. Six months later Bobby Bare had a big hit with the song---after he retitled it Detroit City.

[Phil Grocholl]

[Thomps2525]

Wade Mainer, Bluegrass Pioneer, Dies at 104
Cameron Matthews, thevoot.com, Sep 15 2011 8:00AM

Wade Mainer, legendary bluegrass/old-time mountain musician and inventor of the two-finger-picking style of banjo playing, died September 12 at his Detroit-area home. He was 104.

Born near Asheville, N.C., where he honed his craft in early country music, Mainer later joined his brother J.E.'s Mountaineers group and recorded for many major labels throughout the 1930s. He moved to Flint, Michigan, in the 1950s to work for General Motors, essentially giving up his music career. After abandoning the banjo for four years, Mainer was convinced to take up his instrument once again. "This is the only kind of music there is that's good listening and tells a story," the bluegrass man told the Associated Press in 1991.

"Wade Mainer is the last of the old guard from the '20s and '30s to pass on," says bluegrass musician Ricky Skaggs. "Mainer's Mountaineers was a huge group during that time. They influenced the Monroe Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, the Stanley Brothers, Flatt and Scruggs, Reno and Smiley and countless other music groups from the South."

[Thomps2525]

Grand Ole Opry Star Wilma Lee Cooper Dies at 90
Gayle Thompson, theboot.com, Sep 16 2011 2:40PM

Longtime Grand Ole Opry star Wilma Lee Cooper, who gained national prominence as one-half of the country-bluegrass duo Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, died September 13 from natural causes at her home in Sweetwater, Tennessee. She was 90.

The West Virginia native began her legendary career as a child, taking part in the family band. The Leary Family performed concerts all across their home state. Wilma Lee married her late husband, fiddler and singer Dale T. "Stoney" Cooper in 1939 and formed their duo, backed by the Clinch Mountain Clan. The two were best known for their story songs such as The Legend Of The Dogwood Tree, Little Rosewood Casket, Sunny Side Of The Mountain and Philadelphia Lawyer.

Wilma Lee continued performing with the Clinch Mountain Clan after her husband passed away in 1977. A member of the Opry since 1957, she remained a regular there until a stroke during a performance at the Ryman Auditorium in 2001 forced her to retire. She returned in 2010 to join the Opry cast during the grand re-opening of the Opry House following the May flood that year. Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper's daughter, Carol Lee, is lead singer of the Opry's backing vocal group, the Carol Lee Singers.

[Phil Grocholl]

I did not know that Carol Lee is the daughter of Wilma Lee Cooper. Small world this country music is. Well, it's sad about Wilma Lee Cooper for sure. But, I hope she rests in peace.

And that makes 2, who's gonna be number 3?

[GoHawkeyes]

http://www.countrystandardtime.com/news/newsitem.asp?xid=5756

Johnny Wright, Kitty Wells' husband, dies at 97
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 – Johnny Wright, 97, the husband of Kitty Wells and one half of the recording duo Johnny & Jack, died today at 97 at his home in Madison, Tenn.

Born in Mount Juliet, Tenn., Wright first performed with Jack Anglin in 1936. In 1937, he married Wells, who was 18. The two, along with Wright's sister Louise, performed as Johnnie Wright & the Harmony Girls. In 1939, Wright and Anglin formed Johnnie & Jack. They teamed up full-time in the 1940s and, except for the time Anglin spent overseas during World War II, remained together for more than two decades.

In 1952, Johnnie & Jack's Poison Love led to them being on the Grand Ole Opry, where they and Wells were invited to join and stayed for 15 years. They continued having hits in the 1950s, including Stop the World (And Let Me Off). Following Anglin's death in an car accident in 1963 on his way to the funeral for Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and Randy Hughes. Wright continued performing and releasing records.

In 1964, he and his Tennessee Mountain Boys had a Top 25 hit with Walkin', Talkin', Cryin', Barely Beatin' Broken Heart. The following year, he had a big hit with Hello Vietnam, which went to number one. In 1968, he and Wells recorded an autobiographical duet, "We'll Stick Together" and continued playing live shows together through the early 1980s.

In 1992, the couple and their son Bobby began playing together again. On Dec. 31, 2000, the duo performed their farewell concert at the Nashville Nightlife Theater in Nashville.

Wright and Wells had three children, two daughters Ruby, who died in 2009, and Carol Sue and a son, Bobby. Each had minor success individually as recording artists. Both Bobby and Ruby performed as part of their parents' road tour for many years.