Tag Archives: death

Country

Ray Price one of the greats left us today

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Ray Price has covered — and kicked up — as much musical turf as any country singer of the postwar era. He’s been lionized as the man who saved hard country when Nashville went pop, and vilified as the man who went pop when hard country was starting to call its own name with pride.
~Dan Cooper (allmusic.com)

 

Ray Price, the legendary country singer, has died following his battle with pancreatic cancer,Rolling Stone reports. He was 87.

 

For The Good Times:

From Wikipedia:

Birth name Ray Price
Also known as The Cherokee Cowboy
Born January 12, 1926 (age 87)
Origin Perryville, Texas, U.S.
Genres Country, Western swing
Occupations Singer, songwriter, guitarist
Years active 1948–present
Associated acts Johnny Bush, Merle Haggard, Rosetta Tharpe, Harlan Howard, George Jones, Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck

Ray Price (born January 12, 1926) is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone has often been praised as among the best male voices of country music. His more well-known recordings include “Release Me”, “Crazy Arms”, “Heartaches by the Number”, “City Lights”, “My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You”, “For the Good Times”, “Night Life”, “I Won’t Mention It Again”, “You’re the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me”, and “Danny Boy”. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996 and—now in his 80s—continues to record and tour.

….He relocated to Nashville in the early 1950s, rooming for a brief time with Hank Williams. When Williams died, Price managed his band, the Drifting Cowboys, and had minor success…..

ray price & hank williams

Crazy Arms and Heartaches by the number:

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Blues, Music Calendar

Today: R.L. Burnside passed away September 1 2005

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“He was a happy-go-lucky nihilist…. he took things exactly as they were. No more, no less.”
– Matthew Johnson, the founder of Mr. Burnside’s record label, Fat Possum.


R. L. Burnside (November 23, 1926 – September 1, 2005), born Robert Lee Burnside, was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist who lived much of his life in and around Holly Springs, Mississippi. He played music for much of his life, but did not receive much attention until the early 1990s.

In the latter half of the 1990s, Burnside repeatedly recorded with Jon Spencer,  garnering crossover appeal and introducing his music to a new fan base within the underground garage rock scene.

One commentator noted that Burnside…. were “present-day exponents of an edgier, electrified version of the raw, uncut Delta blues sound.”

In the 1990s, he appeared in the film Deep Blues and began recording for the Oxford, Mississippi, label Fat Possum Records. Founded byLiving Blues magazine editor Peter Redvers-Lee and Matthew Johnson, the label was dedicated to recording aging North Mississippi bluesmen such as Burnside and Junior Kimbrough.

Burnside remained with Fat Possum from that time until his death.

Burnside’s 1996 album A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (recorded with Jon Spencer) gained critical acclaim, earning praise from Bono and Iggy Pop.

Style:

Burnside had a powerful, expressive voice and played both electric and acoustic guitars (both with a slide and without). His drone-based style was a characteristic of North Mississippi hill country blues rather than Mississippi Delta blues. Like other country blues musicians, he did not always adhere to 12- or 16-bar blues patterns, often adding extra beats according to his preference. He called this “Burnside style” and often commented that his backing musicians needed to be familiar with his style in order to be able to play along with him.

Burnside collaborated in the late 1990s with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on the album A Ass Pocket of Whiskey. Consequently, he gained the attention of many within this underground music scene, cited as an influence by Hillstomp and covered on record by The Immortal Lee County Killers.

Burnside’s “Skinny Woman” was also interpolated into the song “Busted” by fellow Fat Possum musicians The Black Keys, who have listed Burnside as an influence on their music.

Shake ’em on down – Live:

Album of the day – Rollin’ & Tumblin’ (Spotify):

Other September-01:

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Music Calendar, pop, Rock, Singer Songwriter

Today: It is 3 years since the great Alex Chilton died

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Alex Chilton, power pop genius died 17. March in 2010 three years ago today.

Paul Westerberg wrote these words in The New York Times three days after Alex Chilton passed away:

It was some years back, the last time I saw Alex Chilton. We miraculously bumped into each other one autumn evening in New York, he in a Memphis Minnie T-shirt, with take-out Thai, en route to his hotel. He invited me along to watch the World Series on TV, and I immediately discarded whatever flimsy obligation I may have had. We watched baseball, talked and laughed, especially about his current residence — he was living in, get this, a tent in Tennessee.

Because we were musicians, our talk inevitably turned toward women, and Al, ever the Southern gentleman, was having a hard time between bites communicating to me the difficulty in … you see, the difficulty in (me taking my last swig that didn’t end up on the wall, as I boldly supplied the punch line) “… in asking a young lady if she’d like to come back to your tent?” We both darn near died there in a fit of laughter.

Yeah, December boys got it bad, as “September Gurls” notes. The great Alex Chilton is gone — folk troubadour, blues shouter, master singer, songwriter and guitarist. Someone should write a tune about him. Then again, nah, that would be impossible. Or just plain stupid.

He is one the all time best pop melody makers, he’s up there with Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson and Pete Townsend. When you hear his songs for the first time you’ll swear you’ve heard it before, but you have not. It is just so instantly recognizable, so familiar and so right!

The Box Tops – The Letter:

Alex Chilton was involved in great music all his life, he was like the music worlds Coen brothers, they may be making some movies that are not fantastic, but they are always good. And in most cases better and more interesting  than anything else out there. Chilton had a very consistent career and deserved so much more recognition than he got.

The Ballad of El Goodo (live, 93):

It is difficult to get across the admiration I have for Alex Chilton, let’s just say that he is one of the all time best and listen to his music.

Oh, and I think we should include that “stupid”song that Mr. Westerberg is talking about above. Alex Chilton, here in a solo Paul Westerberg live clip:

From the Guardians Obituary:

Alex Chilton defined the term cult hero. He was difficult, mercurial, endlessly self-sabotaging and, for a brief time, utterly brilliant. His 70s group Big Star remain almost unknown to the mainstream but are one of the key abiding influences in rock music of any calibre, their short life only fuelling their near-mythical status. “I never travel far without a little Big Star,” sang the Replacements on their strange love song, “Alex Chilton”. Several influential rock groups, from REM to Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub to Wilco, would echo that sentiment. REM’s Peter Buck once described Big Star as “a Rosetta stone for a whole generation”.

My (Hallgeir) list of Alex Chilton’s top 21 songs (actually 22, I had to include The Letter even if he didn’t write that one):

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