You young fellers missed the passing of Ferlin Husky, who was a star when I was young. The news flashed me back to high school, and a classmate who had a mad crush on him.
RIP Jet Harris, formerly bass guitarist with the Shadows - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12790789. The Shadows were Cliff Richard's backing group in the late 1950's and early 1960's but did have some instrumental hits without him - the best known probably being Apache. Little known outside the UK, he was a key member of a band that paved the way for the Beatles and other guitar based bands in the early 1960's.
Like virtually all in the folk music world, I was deeply saddened to learn that Hazel Dickens, the great Appalachian singer and songwriter, and pioneering woman of bluegrass, had passed away early today in a Washington, D.C. hospital where she was being treated for pneumonia.
Hazels importance cannot be underestimated. At a time when most of the artists coming into the folk music world were revivalists, she was a tradition-bearer, born and raised in the green rolling hills of West Virginia, who brought generations of authenticity to the songs she sang, and the songs she wrote, and the music she played.
In the mid-1960s, Hazel formed a duo with Alice Gerrard that fronted bluegrass bands as bandleaders and lead singers which was very rare for the day. They recorded two LPs of bluegrass for Folkways in the 60s that were among the first bluegrass albums to feature women as leaders. When Smithsonian Folkways reissued the LPs on a single CD, they rightfully named it Pioneering Women of Bluegrass.
RIP John Walker of the Walker Brothers. Member of 60s band Walker Brothers who had hits in the UK with The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine and Make it Easy on Yourself. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13329935
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."
Kenny Baker has an artist page at eMu - link - which only contains a couple of albums by some jazz horn player of the same name - and the compilation section has a couple of fiddlelacious releases if you get an itch you have to scratch - Great American Fiddle Collection for one, and another I will be getting from 7digital instead tonight ($8.99/3 disc set) - The Fiddler's Hall Of Fame - that I'm pretty excited to have found.
Yeah, sad so young but no surprise. My husband asked how? I said...well I imagine it was an OD.
In other news, Daniel the pod person is posing in lower case only.
Comments
Gone.
Evidently we are from the same era, a bit of irony is that the only recording I remember by Ferlin is " since you're gone"
Obviously everyone on this list is sad, but when they are as young as Gerard and die of cancer it somehow seems more depressing.
Craig
EDIT: Paste says 1977-2011, which means he's actually a year younger than me...
http://frfb.blogspot.com/2011/04/hazel-dickens-1935-2011.html
I was just listening to a great Rhino punk box over the weekend that included "Oh Bondage, Up Yours." RIP.
RIP.
Craig
The revolution will not be televised...
Edit: See Guardian article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/jun/22/mike-waterson-remembered for an appreciation of his role in English folk music
Kenny Baker
I wish this were a surprise. So much talent, but so messed up.
Craig
In other news, Daniel the pod person is posing in lower case only.
A slip?