“If you have become a convenient conduit for sorrow and you suddenly are happy, that doesn’t necessarily make the people who are listening likewise so happy, because they still have their struggles that they’re dealing with.” –Jim White Jim White […]
J.D. “CAST” KING, whose 2005 country album Saw Mill Man won substantial acclaim, died December 13 in Old Sand Mountain, Alabama. He was 81.
Jazz saxophonist FRANK MORGAN died of colon cancer December 14. He was 73.
Tejano legend LYDIA MENDOZA died December 20. She recorded a handful of influential sides for Okeh in 1928, and over 50 albums altogether. She is perhaps best known for her 1934 hit “Mal Hombre”. Mendoza was 91.
Bloomington, Indiana, bassist EVAN FARRELL, who played in Rogue Wave, Japonize Elephants, and on the most recent Magnolia Electric Co. tour, died in a house fire December 23 in Oakland, California. He apparently woke the rest of the house up […]
Bluegrass fiddler and mandolinist VERNON DERRICK died January 4. He played with Jimmy Martin, the Stanley Brothers, and Hank Williams Jr. He was 74.
Silos bassist and multi-instrumentalist DREW GLACKIN died January 5 of heart damage caused by an overactive thyroid. Glackin had also played and recorded with Tandy, Crash Test Dummies, the Hold Steady and others. He was 45.
Though he recorded 45 albums after, John Stewart is mostly remembered for the seven years he spent with the Kingston Trio (1961-67) and for writing the Monkees’ hit “Daydream Believer”. He died of a brain aneurysm or a massive stroke […]
British writer and researcher Tony Russell has been authoring history-making contributions to our knowledge and understanding of American roots music since the 1970s, including his ground-breaking re-examination of interracial, cross-genre music history Blacks, Whites And Blues, and the recent, monumental […]
Performers billed by a single name are often over-the-top: Madonna, Cher, Liberace. But not Thao. The Virginia-bred songwriter isn’t the sort to swoop out from the wings with a crystal chandelier on her head. Nor does she clutter up songs […]
