The Tally Sheet For Who Is Gone--Sad List

[Phil Grocholl]

I heard this when I was listening to eat real Laporte show on XM 166. The diet there Tom IRN USA radio network news mentioned it at the end of his newscast. And then the show went back to its normal programming so that is the only place I found it but he did say it on the radio I heard it.

[CTGuy]

[Sirterp]

Not to mention he's only 75.

[Phil Grocholl]

Yes, I do believe that it is a hoax that Glen Campbell is deceased! When I was listening to the Leo Laporte show, the radio news announcer said that Glen Campbell had passed a way at the age of 78 during the second to the last hours news broadcast. But, like you say no one else has reported anything about it, so it must not be true. Especially since he was on the Grammys live this evening. Now, don't I look like a fool reporting something that I heard from what I thought was a trusted news source but turned out to not be true at all! Well, there goes all of my credibility! I apologize to Glen Campbell and all of his fans about saying something that turned out to not be true!

[Phil Grocholl]

I also apologize for the bad spelling on my spell check on my Apple iPhone! It is really difficult to try to talk out a message while driving down the road in dealing with Highwinds in very poor driving conditions! Between the poor voice recognition software in the noisy background environments, I am surprised this thing understands me at all.

[Thomps2525]

Billy Strange played guitar on a lot of country recordings in the 1960s. He was married to Jeanne Black, who had a 1960 hit with He'll Have To Stay, an answer song to Jim Reeves' He'll Have To Go.

Billy Strange, arranger & studio musician, dies at 81
Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times, Feb 23 2012 09:01 PM

Guitarist Billy Strange once took the kind of phone call that thousands of musicians receive only in their best and wildest dreams. "I was staying at a hotel in Nashville in 1965 when my telephone rang and this unmistakable voice said, 'Billy, this is Elvis. I'd like for you to stop by my studios and play some music with me,'" Strange told an English newspaper in 2002. "I was absolutely thrilled, so I went along and he just sat at the piano playing gospel songs. We had a lot of fun; so much so that we never got around to recording anything that first day." That made it a rare day in Strange's life in the 1960s: He was not only one of the hottest players, but also a successful songwriter, arranger and recording artist working in L.A.'s' top recording studios at what may have been the pinnacle of a long career. He contributed to hit records by artists such as Presley, the Beach Boys, Phil Spector, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, the Everly Brothers, Dean Martin, Willie Nelson and the Partridge Family.

Strange, 81, died February 22 in Nashville. The cause of death was not disclosed. He was best known as musical arranger of Nancy Sinatra's first number-one hit, These Boots Are Made For Walkin', in 1966, and her 1967 duet with her father, Somethin' Stupid. Strange also was the budding pop singer's co-star on Bang Bang, on which the only accompaniment to her wistful vocal were the strums and runs from Strange's tremolo-soaked electric guitar. Strange played in hundreds of recording sessions as one of the cadre of accomplished young L.A. studio musicians later dubbed "The Wrecking Crew," because they took work away from the veteran studio pros of the time.

William Everett Strange was born September 29, 1930, in Long Beach and early on established a musical identity with his own work. He recorded at Capitol Records in Hollywood in the early 1950s, playing country and boogie-woogie flavored numbers such as Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves and The Crazy Quilt Rag. In 1962 an instrumental that Strange wrote, and which had been recorded by the Champs of Tequila fame, became a huge hit for The Twist singer Chubby Checker after songwriter Kal Mann added lyrics to Strange's music, allowing Checker to extend his dominance in the dance-craze genre. Limbo Rock exploited the early-'60s fascination in the U.S. with the limbo, and Strange's song gave limbo parties an anthem to be built around.

With his all-around skills as a songwriter, arranger and player, Strange was soon in high demand in recording studios, adding to sessions with Ricky Nelson, the Everlys and Spector, the latter connection segueing into work with Spector disciple Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, for whom he played on their high-watermark album Pet Sounds in 1966. Those credits helped bring him to the attention of Presley, whose career as a recording artist faltered in the 1960s as he focused on formulaic Hollywood movies set up for him by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. After that first meeting, Presley and Strange became close friends. "Elvis used to call me up around 2 am or 3 am and say, 'Hey Billy, let's go for a ride,' " Strange recalled in 2002, when A Little Less Conversation, a song that he and Mac Davis had written for Presley 33 years earlier, suddenly was a hit again thanks to an electronic dance remix by Amsterdam DJ Junkie XL. "I lost a dear friend when Elvis died. I couldn't bring myself to go to the funeral of one who expired so needlessly and tragically."

Strange's path intersected with that of another 20th century pop music titan when he and songwriter-producer Lee Hazlewood were auditioning songs with Nancy Sinatra for her debut album. "Lee and Billy came over and Lee was picking some things on the guitar, and I said, 'I like the one about the boots,' " Nancy told Larry King in 2002. "My dad, when he was leaving, he said, 'You're right. It's the one about the boots.' A hit song is a hit song. The only other time I felt that feeling was with Somethin' Stupid, and it also went to Number one." Strange served as arranger on most of her recordings and also played on many of them.

Strange also created the arrangements for a guitar-driven big-band album Duane Eddy recorded in 1967, Roaring Twangies, that featured both of them wielding their instruments over a large ensemble of saxophones, trumpets and trombones. "He said it was one of his favorite projects because he did so much with the arrangements" of Glenn Miller hits and other songs mostly from the pre-rock era, said Eddy, who also wrote a song for and played with Sinatra, Hazlewood and Strange on their 2004 reunion album Nancy & Lee 3, three years before Hazlewood died.

A string of instrumental solo albums furthered Strange's reputation as a guitarist, often casting hits of the day in deep twang settings that have been dubbed "loungeabilly." His 1963 12 String Guitar album is considered a classic among electric guitar enthusiasts. He scored a couple of Top 100 singles with his versions of music from the James Bond films, The James Bond Theme in 1964 and Goldfinger the following year. He was elected to the Musicians Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, both based in Nashville.

[Thomps2525]

Ben and Hoss and Adam and Little Joe were country. I don't know about Hop Sing though. Anyway, the illustrator of something we saw every week on tv from 1959 to 1973 has died. I doubt many of us ever knew his identity:

Robert Ayres dies at 98; illustrator created Ponderosa map
Mike Boehm, Los Angeles Times, March 9 2012

As a set illustrator for Hollywood studios, Robert Temple Ayres created his most famous work at Paramount in 1959. Officially called Map To Illustrate The Ponderosa In Nevada, it was conjured up just so it could burst into flames on television screens during the opening of the long-running show Bonanza. While the memorable Bonanza theme music played, Ayres' map appeared, then dissolved in flames, revealing the Ponderosa ranch's inhabitants on horseback — the Cartwright clan, played by Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker and Pernell Roberts.

The 98-year-old Ayres died February 25 at his home in Cherry Valley in Riverside County after making one last pilgrimage to view his iconic artwork three days before he died of heart failure, Ayres' original Ponderosa map had hung for decades in the home of Bonanza creator and producer David Dortort, but after Dortort died in 2010, his family donated it to the Gene Autry National Center Of The American West in Griffith Park.

[Thomps2525]

If I post an obituary related to Bonanza, I have to give equal time to The Big Valley, which was a pretty blatant rip-off of Bonanza, except a woman was running the ranch.

Big Valley star Peter Breck dead at 82
Associated Press, Feb 10 2012 6:43 PM PST

Peter Breck, the actor who played a son of ranch owner Barbara Stanwyck on the 1960s Western The Big Valley, died February 6 in Vancouver, British Columbia, after a long illness, He was 82.

A native of Haverhill, Massachusetts, Breck was also a regular on the TV Westerns Maverick and Black Saddle. He had guest roles on seies from the 1950s through the early 2000s including Perry Mason, The Virginian and Fantasy Island. His film appearances include Thunder Road, I Want To Live! and Benji. Breck was best known for his role as hot-tempered rancher Nick Barkley on The Big Valley, which aired from 1965 to 1969.

[Phil Grocholl]

Earl Scruggs passed away today. He was 88. Here's the story as reported by USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/story/2012-03-28/earl-scruggs-banjo-legend-bluegrass-dies/53841194/1

[Thomps2525]

People who never listened to country or bluegrass in the 1960s still knew at least one big hit by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs: "Come and listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed, a poor ol' mountaineer, barely kept his family fed..."

[Phil Grocholl]

Yep, good old Beverly Hillbillies theme song. Great show. And a sad loss for Country Music. It must have been something sudden, cause he was just on The Grand Old Opry a few weeks ago. Rest in Peace, Earl, you will be missed.

[Thomps2525]

I doubt that very many people outside the L.A. area know who this man was, so I rewrote the obituary to make it short and simple:

Bluegrass radio host/teacher Frank Javorsek Dead At 70

Bluegrass musician Frank Javorsek died of a heart attack March 22 while giving a mandolin lesson at the California Traditional Music Society's Center For Folk Music in Encino. He was 70. Javorsek was born in Cripple Creek, Colorado, and in 1976 was playing mandolin in a bluegrass band, Hot Off The Press, when he was hired as a music teacher at the California Traditional Music Society's Center For Folk Music in Encino. Three years later he married the owner's daughter and in 1980 they bought the business and moved it to Canoga Park. It closed in 2010. In addition to mandolin, Javorsek played banjo, fiddle and guitar and for 20 years hosted the Saturday morning Bluegrass Express program on Cal State Northridge station KCSN.

[Thomps2525]

Golly gee, I never knew Chris Ethridge spent eight years with Willie Nelson. He ran the gamut from Whiskey River to Stardust...and now he'll never again be the gamut-runner he used to be.

Flying Burrito Brothers bassist Chris Ethridge dies at 65
Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times, April 25 2012

Members of the International Submarine Band chose a name for their new group that practically ensured it would never rise above cult status, and sure enough, that band disappeared with barely a trace after making a handful of recordings in the mid-1960s. But after ISB members Gram Parsons and Chris Ethridge teamed up with ex-Byrds singer and songwriter Chris Hillman and steel guitarist Pete Kleinow, the pioneering country-rock group the Flying Burrito Brothers was born and the ISB won permanent footnote status in the history of pop music.

Ethridge, who died April 23 at age 65 at a hospital in Meridian, Miss.issippi of complications from pancreatic cancer, was the group's original bassist and co-wrote several songs with Parsons, widely lauded as one of the most innovative figures in the marriage of country and rock in the 1960s. Ethridge also spent about eight years in Willie Nelson's touring band, a gig during which he recorded one of Nelson's most famous anthems, Whiskey River.

"Here's what people don't know or don't remember," Hillman told The Times on Monday. "Three of Gram's greatest songs were co-written by Chris: Those would be Hot Burrito #1, Hot Burrito #2 and She. "I've always said Gram Parsons' greatest recorded vocals were those two Hot Burrito songs," Hillman said. "Maybe it's my opinion, but I was there and I know I never heard him sing better than he did on those two songs. He just nailed 'em."

"Chris is a big loss," said Booker T. Jones, the influential Memphis organist and bandleader of Booker T. & the MG's, who met Ethridge after both moved to Los Angeles. Jones, also a co-writer of She, later drafted Ethridge to play in the group that backed Nelson on his massively successful 1978 pop standards album, Stardust. "He was happy to be in the background," Jones said. "He supported Willie really well. He had an innate knowledge of music, and really understood what notes to play. He was one of those people that you didn't have to worry that he was going to play a wrong note. It wasn't going to happen."

John Christopher Ethridge II was born February 10, 1947, and raised in Meridian — where the man known as the father of country music, Jimmie Rodgers, grew up — and moved to Los Angeles when he was 17. There he met Parsons and fell in with the burgeoning group of musicians who came of age listening to Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and other seminal rock artists while also cultivating their passion for traditional country, bluegrass and folk music. Those strains were typically mutually exclusive in Nashville at the time, but in Los Angeles, they merged in the music of the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Linda Ronstadt, the Stone Poneys and other acts. Ethridge left the Burrito Brothers after the group recorded its first album, The Gilded Palace Of Sin, in 1969, and became a studio musician, playing with Ronstadt, Ry Cooder, Randy Newman, Jackson Browne and many others.

[Thomps2525]

Doug Dillard dies at 75; banjo player, member of the Dillards band
Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times, May 18 2012

Bluegrass banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs answered a knock at the door of his Nashville home in 1953 to find an eager-looking banjo enthusiast on the porch asking Scruggs to put a set of his special tuner keys on the young man's instrument. "He was so gracious," Rodney Dillard said of the reception his older brother, banjo player Doug Dillard, received that day from the father of the bluegrass banjo. "He sold him the tuners, then sat down at his kitchen table and installed them on the spot."

Doug Dillard, who died May 16 at 75, put those tuners and Scruggs' influence to good use over a long career as a founding member of the Dillards bluegrass band, as a solo artist and in collaboration with numerous other country, bluegrass, rock and pop musicians. He and the band helped popularize bluegrass in the 1960s through regular appearances on The Andy Griffith Show, and they were important figures in the creation of what would become known as country rock music.

Dillard, who suffered a collapsed lung several months ago, recently developed a lung infection and died in a Nashville hospital. His declining health prompted Dillard to give up touring about two years ago. Yet he still played occasional recording sessions and isolated concert performances, including when the Dillards were inducted in 2009 into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in Owensboro, Kentucky, by the International Bluegrass Music Association.

Born March 6, 1937, in Salem, Missouri, in the Ozark Mountains, Douglas Flint Dillard was one of three sons of Homer and Lorene Dillard. Music ran in the family: Homer played fiddle, their mother was a guitarist and the eldest sibling, Earl, played keyboards. Doug Dillard never forgot how Scruggs affected him the first time he heard him. "I was driving down the road with the radio on," Dillard recalled. "All of a sudden I heard this incredible banjo music. I got so excited that I drove off the road and down into a ditch. I had to be towed out."

He started on guitar, got his first banjo at 15 as a Christmas present and promptly wrote a letter to Scruggs asking whether 16 was too young to learn the banjo. Scruggs wrote back encouraging his interest in the instrument, cementing Dillard's love for the banjo. By 19 he was performing regularly on a Salem radio station. He and Rodney were members of the Ozark Mountain Boys from 1956 to 1959. But as teenagers in the '50s, the Dillard brothers were also exposed to the sounds of rock 'n' roll, which they wanted to incorporate into their music. Doug earned an accounting degree at Washington University in St. Louis, and Rodney, five years younger, said he "quituated" from studies at Southern Illinois University to pursue their passion for playing music.

When they were ready to seek a wider audience, "we decided we wanted to go to Los Angeles, because we felt people were more open-minded, creative-wise," Rodney Dillard said May 17. "Nashville was formula cut-and-dried at that time." Shortly after arriving in L.A., the Dillards were signed to the burgeoning folk-rock label Elektra Records, which issued their major-label debut album Back Porch Bluegrass.

"When they hit town, they completely blew everybody away," Chris Hillman, a founding member of the Byrds, said May 17. The Byrds later enlisted the Dillards as an opening act after their own career took off. "It wasn't the old bluegrass thing," Hillman said. "Doug Dillard was the only bluegrass banjo player who actually smiled on stage. He really enjoyed himself. Their entire approach was very entertaining. And Doug was an amazing player."

The Dillards also departed from strict bluegrass tradition as one of the first acts to use amplified instruments. Their music and faces became familiar nationwide starting in 1963, when they began appearing on The Andy Griffith Show as a band called The Darlin' Boys. Griffith encouraged them to use their original songs as often as possible on his show. Their popularity led to guest spots on musical variety shows hosted by Judy Garland, Tennessee Ernie Ford and others.

"Because of The Andy Griffith Show and the exposure that music brought, it gave an introduction to bluegrass to a lot of people who never ever would have gotten to it," Rodney said. "They found others like Flatt & Scruggs and the Osborne Brothers and found this whole world of the classic form of traditional music."

Living and working in Southern California in the 1960s, the Dillards were in on the birth of what would become known as country rock. The Dillards were invited to open shows on a two-week tour by the Byrds, which was at the forefront of blending country, rock and folk strains. After he left the Dillards, Doug joined the Byrds on their European tour. In the 1970s Dillard joined ex-Byrds member Gene Clark in the Dillard & Clark band. With Doug pursuing solo and other interests, the Dillards continued with Rodney at the helm. The Dillards' only album to chart on Billboard, 1972's Roots & Branches, was recorded without Doug. The brothers had toured together again in recent years until Doug's health declined to the point where he could no longer handle the rigors of the road.

[GoHawkeyes]

http://www.nme.com/news/miscellaneous/64046

Pioneering folk musician Arthel Lane 'Doc' Watson has died at the age of 89.

The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, known for blending bluegrass, country, gospel and blues, passed away following abdominal surgery last week, his promoters confirmed to AFP.

He was admitted to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem in the US following a fall last week, with his daughter telling local media he was "real sick" at the time.

Known for his influential flat-picking playing style, Watson picked up a total of seven Grrammys during his career, including the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Born into a musical family, he went blind from the age of one after suffering an infection. He spent much of his career recording and touring with his son Merle, releasing albums such as 'Doc Watson And Family' and Sitting' Here Pickin' The Blues'.

Former US president Bill Clinton is among those who have paid tribute to Watson down the years, commenting after awarding him the National Medal of Arts: "There may not be a serious, committed baby boomer alive who didn't at some point in his or her youth try to spend a few minutes at least trying to learn to pick a guitar like Doc Watson."

Watson is survived by his wife of almost 66 years Rosa Lee Carlton Watson, their daughter Nancy Ellen, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and his brother David Watson.