| Joe Diffie Obituary | |
 Joe Diffie, a dyed-in-the-wool country singer with a cutting rock edge, passed away on March 29, 2020 from complications of the Coronavirus. He was 61 years old. Joe Diffie earned a reputation as a singer’s singer, a master song craftsman and a flawless judge of great country lyrics. One of the major New Country stars of the 1990s, he scored top 10 hits with Home, If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets), Third Rock From the Sun, Pickup Man and Bigger Than the Beatles (all country number ones) plus New Way (To Light Up An Old Flame), Ships That Don’t Come In, Honky Tonk Attitude, Prop Me Up Beside The Jukebox (If I Die), John Deere Green, So Help Me Girl, A Texas Size Heartache and A Night To Remember. Read more | |
| Earl Thomas Conley Obituary | Joe Sun Obituary |
Earl Thomas Conley, one of the most successful country singers of  the 1980s, passed away in Nashville on April 10, 2019, following a battle with a condition similar to dementia. He was 77. Few country singers possess the magical singing, songwriting and hit-making ability of Earl Thomas Conley.Recognised as one of the most unique artists in country music history, he was one of those rare artists who walked away at his peak. For longer than almost anyone could imagine, Conley was a hit machine. Read more
| Outlaw country singer Joe Sun passed away in  his Palm Bay, Florida home of natural causes on October 25, 2019. He was 76 years old. Joe Sun emerged in the late 1970s as one of the freshest and most distinctive vocalists to hit Nashville. In many ways, with his mix of soul, blues, honky-tonk, rock ’n’ roll and traditional country that he described as ‘blues-country’, he was too raw and cutting edge for the country mainstream. He did enjoy some success with the original version of Hugh Moffatt’s Old Flames (Can’t Hold As Candle To You)....Read more
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| Fred Foster Obituary | Jim Glaser Obituary |
Fred Foster, regarded as one of Nashville music’s visionaries, a man who saw  beyond labels like ‘pop’ or ‘country’ and as a key figure in the careers of many of the industry’s greats, passed away on February 20, 2019. He was 87. He is the man who first signed Kris Kristofferson and Dolly Parton to recording contracts and also turned a struggling Roy Orbison into an international pop icon. Unlike most record label executives, Foster was first and foremost a music fan. He was also something of a maverick, a man who didn’t always follow the rules or the accepted way of doing things, preferring to go with his gut feeling and often ending up out on a limb.Read more
|  Jim Glaser, the high tenor singer of the renowned Tompall & The Glaser Brothers, passed away on April 6, 2019 following a heart attack. He was 81. In a career that stretched back to the mid-1950s he enjoyed success as a songwriter, most notably as the co-writer with Jimmy Payne of the 1960s pop hit Woman, Woman, an in-demand session singer and in addition to his long stint with the Glaser Brothers he had a successful solo career recording for Starday, Monument, RCA, MCA, MGM, Noble Vision and Solitaire scoring his biggest hit with the chart-topping You’re Getting’ To Me in 1984. Read more
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| Harold Bradley Obituary | Mac Wiseman Obituary |
 Harold Bradley, original member of the famed ‘A Team’ of studio musicians who helped define the Nashville Sound, passed away on January 31, 2019, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. He was 93.The brother of country music legend Owen Bradley, Harold Bradley is reportedly the most recorded guitar player in history. Playing lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and banjo, he can be heard on recordings by Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley. Harold would often mute the bass strings, creating a muffled, rhythmic effect that allowed the bass to become a more melodic extension of the drums. This style is known as ‘tic tac’ bass. It has since been employed on thousands of Nashville sessions.Read more....
|  Mac Wiseman, singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, band-leader, record producer, record label executive, radio announcer, voice over specialist, you name it, the veteran entertainer did virtually it all in a career that stretched back to the early 1940s, passed away on February 24, 2019, in a rehab facility in Antioch, Tennessee. He was 93 and had been experiencing kidney failure during the previous few weeks. Famed for his clear and mellow tenor voice, Mac Wiseman recorded with many great bluegrass bands, including those of Molly O'Day, Flatt and Scruggs, Bill Monroe, and the Osborne Brothers. Read more
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| Sanger D "Whitey" Shafer Obituary | Reggie Young Obituary |
 Nashville song writing legend Sanger D. 'Whitey' Shafer, responsible for some of the most significant country songs of the last forty years, including I Just Started Hatin’ Cheatin’ Songs Today (Moe Bandy), Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind (George Strait), All My Ex’s Live in Texas (George Strait), I Never Go Around Mirrors (Lefty Frizzell, Keith Whitley),That’s the Way Love Goes (Johnny Rodriguez), and I Wonder Do You Think of Me (Keith Whitley), among many others, passed away on January 12, 2019. He was 84. Read more.
|  Nashville session guitarist Reggie Young, reputedly responsible for playing on more recording sessions than any other studio musician, passed away at his home in Leipers Fork, Middle Tennessee on January 17, 2019. He was 82. An unassuming musician, he had that rare ability to come up with distinctive riffs almost at the drop of a hat to enhance such classic hits as Dobie Gray's Drift Away, Elvis Presley's Suspicious Minds, Willie Nelson's Always On My Mind, Dusty Springfield's Son Of A Preacher Manand hundreds more. Read more
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| Steve Ripley Obituary | Jerry Chesnut Obituary |
 Steve Ripley, leader of the country-rock band The Tractors, whose genius for making music is widely regarded as having helped fuel a revolution called Americana, died peacefully at his home in Pawnee, Oklahoma on January 3, 2019 surrounded by his family. Read more
|  Nashville-based songwriter Jerry Chesnut, best known for penning the country classics A Good Year For The Roses and It's Four In the Morning, passed away on December 15, 2018 in Nashville. He was 87. During his long career as a Music Row songwriter, he created dozens of country hits for such wide-ranging performers as Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Del Reeves, Faron Young, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Roy Drusky, Johnny Cash, Johnny Darrell, Alan Jackson, Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton, Bill Anderson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Travis Tritt and Johnny Paycheck. Read more
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| Daryle Singletary Obituary | Roy Clark Obituary |
 Daryle Singletary, a genuine, dyed-in-the-wool traditional country singer, passed away on February 12, 2018 at his home in Lebanon, Tennessee. He was 46 years old. His compelling stone-country vocals paired with unapologetically traditional tunes earned him a string of country hits in the mid-1990s, including I Let Her Lie, Amen Kind Of Love, The Note and Too Much Fun. Read More
|  Roy Clark, the country singer and multi-instrumentalist best known as a long-time host of Hee Haw, the television variety show that brought country music to millions of American households each week, died on Thursday November 15, 2018 at his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma from complications of pneumonia. He was 85.Read more
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| Glen Campbell Obituary | Lari White Obituary |
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|  Lari White, a highly respected Nashville based singer, songwriter, actress, Broadway star and record producer, passed away on January 23, 2018 in hospice care in Nashville after a battle with advanced peritoneal cancer. She was 52. Lari burst onto the American country charts in 1994 with a trio of catchy pop-flavoured top ten country hits That’s My Baby, Now I Knowand That’s How You Know (When You’re In Love). It was at the height of the CMT phase in the UK and in no time at all she built up a solid fan base from the infectious songs and the videos that portrayed her in a skimpy mini-dress, so fragile, a waif-like beauty carefully groomed to snare the guys, but not to offend their women folk. Read more
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| Don Williams Obituary | Mel Tillis Obituary |
 Don Williams, known affectionately as ‘the Gentle Giant of country music,’ died on September 8, 2017 at his home in Alabama following a short illness. He was 78. One of the most original and gifted talents in the annals of American country music, the modest and unassuming Texas gentleman had one of the longest hit streaks ever in country music, including 17 No.1s, and 28 others in the top 10. In the UK, he broke through to public acceptance in a way that few country acts have, accumulating gold and platinum albums and even scoring on the pop charts. Read more
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Tillis initially made an impact as a songwriter, penning hits throughout the 1950s and 1960s for Webb Pierce, Ray Price, Bobby Bare, Little Jimmy Dickens, Stonewall Jackson, Kenny Rogers & The First Edition and many others. Read More |
| Norro Wilson Obituary | Michael Johnson Obituary |
 Norro Wilson, one of Nashville’s vastly underrated behind-the-scenes figures, passed away on June 8, 2017 from heart failure following a lengthy illness. He was 79. A highly successful songwriter, producer, music publisher, record label executive and one-time singer, he lived and breathed music. In his career, that stretched back to the late 1950s, he co-wrote such classic songs as The Grand Tour, The Most Beautiful Girl, Another Lonely Song, A Picture Of Me (Without You) and literally dozens more. read more
|  Singer, songwriter, guitarist Michael Johnson passed away on July 25, 2017 at his Minneapolis home following a lengthy illness. He was 72. He came to the forefront in the late 1970s with his soft-pop hits Bluer Than Blue and This Night Won’t Last Forever. Ten years later he made quite an impact in country music with the chart-topping Give Me Wings and The Moon Is Still Over Her Shoulder. Weaving inspiration from classic American songsmiths with strong roots in folk, country and popular standards read more
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| Bap Kennedy Obituary | Curly Putman Obituary |
 Irish singer-songwriter Bap Kennedy, the one-time lead singer with rock band Energy Orchard, passed away on November 1, 2016, following a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 54. Though I had Energy Orchard’s 1990 self-titled debut album, it wasn’t until the late 1990s that I can say that I genuinely became acquainted with Bap and his music…read more
|  Nashville songwriting legend Curly Putman, the man responsible for such classic hit songs as Green, Green Grass Of Home, My Elusive Dreams, It’s a Cheating Situation, D-I-V-O-R-C-E and He Stopped Loving Her Today, widely regarded as the greatest country song ever written, passed away on October 30, 2016 at his home in Lebanon, Tennessee, following a lengthy illness…read more
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| Jean Shepard Obituary | John D Loudermilk Obituary |
 Jean Shepard, often referred to as The Grand Lady of the Grand Ole Opry, passed away on September 25, 2016 following a short illness. She enjoyed a highly successful country music career stretching back over more than 60 years and was still playing the occasional show dates and Opry appearances up until a few months before her passing…read more
|  John D Loudermilk, one of my favourite singer-songwriters of the 1960s-1970s, sadly passed away on September 21, 2016 following a struggle with bone cancer. He was 82. A prolific singer-songwriter John D. Loudermilk was much more famous as a songwriter than a performer, though he recorded regularly from the late 1950s through to the early 1980s, and was a somewhat endearing and consummate entertainer, being particularly skilled on guitar. Straddling the fields of rock, pop, and country, he made his mark with catchy songs that run the read more
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| Ralph Stanley Obituary | Guy Clark Obituary |
 Ralph Stanley, one of country music’s greatest treasures, passed away on June 23, 2016, from complications with skin cancer. He was 89. A titan in the bluegrass world, having recorded more than 170 albums, received numerous Grammy, CMA, and IBMA awards and nominations, and been awarded an honorary doctorate of music from the Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee, Dr Ralph Stanley, as he affectionately became known in his later years, was about as real as anybody you could ever have come across in music…read more
|  Guy Clark, probably the greatest singer-songwriter of my generation, passed away on May 17, 2016. He was 74. The Texas-born troubadour had been battling failing health for some time, yet still continued writing songs, recording and playing his trusty home made guitars. Guy Clark was the very personification of the Texas songwriting tradition…read more
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| Merle Haggard Obituary | Steve Young Obituary |
 Merle Haggard, possibly the greatest country singer and songwriter of all time—certainly of my generation—passed away on April 6, 2016, his 79th birthday. He’d been suffering from pneumonia for some time and though he’d continued touring in the early months of the year, he had been forced to cancel several dates and passed away quietly at his home in Northern California…read more
|  Country-rock pioneer, Steve Young, best-known as the writer of such classics as Seven Bridges Road, Lonesome, On’ry And Mean and Montgomery In The Rain passed away on March 17, 2016 in Nashville, at the age of 73. Long before the rise of the 1970s Outlaw Movement, Steve Young was already a country music maverick and outlaw…read more
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| Kim Williams Obituary | Sonny James Obituary |
 Kim Williams, a highly successful Nashville-based songwriter of the 1990s, passed away on February 11, 2016 in Florida, He was 68. A late-comer to songwriting, Kim was in his mid-forties before he enjoyed his first major success with If The Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets), a number one country hit for Joe Diffie in 1991…read more
|  Sonny James, one of the most popular and successful country singers of the 1960s, passed away on February 22, 2016 of natural causes at Nashville’s Alive Hospice. A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, he was 87. Known as the Southern Gentleman, because of his quiet and polite persona, Sonny James was one of the classiest country-pop vocalists of the 1950s and 1960s…read more
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| Red Simpson Obituary | Troy Shondell Obituary |
 Red Simpson, highly regarded as one of leading lights of truck-drivin’ music of the 1960s and 1970s and a pioneer of the Bakersfield Sound, passed away on January 8, 2016. He was 81. Though he was semi-retired, he was on a tour in the Pacific Northwest in December when he suffered a heart attack. After being released from hospital just before Christmas, he fell ill again on January. 8 and was rushed to a Bakersfield, California hospital, where he died…read more
|  Troy Shondell, ‘a one-hit wonder,’ who sold more than three million copies of This Time in 1961-62, passed away on January 7, 2016, from complications of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. He was 76. In 1961 I was only just beginning to buy my own records and This Time was one of the first singles I bought…read more
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| Kenny Johnson Obituary | Tommy Overstreet Obituary |
 Kenny Johnson, one of the greatest voices in British country music, sadly passed away on Tuesday October 13, 2015 in Spain. One-time lead singer with the Hillsiders and later leader of his own band, Kenny Johnson & Northwind, not to mention a long stint as a radio presenter in his hometown of Liverpool, Kenny lived and breathed country music…read more
|  Tommy Overstreet, a successful country-pop singer of the 1970s, passed away at his home in Hillsboro, Oregon on November 2, 2015 following several months of ill health. He was 78. Often known simply as ‘T.O.’ by his fans, he enjoyed a string of hits with ‘Lady’ songs including (Jeannie Marie) You Were A Lady, Ann (Don’t Go Runnin’), and Gwen (Congratulations),placing 20 songs in the American country top 20 between 1971 and 1979…read more
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| Jeff Walker Obituary | Little Jimmy Dickens Obituary |
 Jeff Walker, one of my best friends in the Nashville music community, passed away on Monday August 24, 2015. He was returning from a family holiday in Florida, when he suffered a heart attack at Nashville’s International airport, and passed away later that evening at a local hospital. He was 65…read more
|  Little Jimmy Dickens, the veteran country music entertainer and long-time Grand Ole Opry star, passed away on January 2, 2015. He was 94. The singer was hospitalised after a stroke on December 25, 2014 and died of cardiac arrest eight days later. Best remembered for his novelty songs…read more
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| Don Robertson Obituary | Larry Henley Obituary |
 Don Robertson, a veteran country-pop songwriter, pianist and one-time pop star, passed away in California on March 16, 2015 at the age of 92. He was renowned for such classic songs as Please Help Me I’m Falling, I Don’t Hurt Anymore, Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger, I Really Don’t Want To Know plus more than a dozen songs recorded by Elvis Presley. He also enjoyed success in his own right with The Happy Whistler, a 1956 top ten pop hit in Britain and America. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972…read more
|  Acclaimed Nashville-based songwriter and former 1960s pop star Larry Henley passed away on December 18, 2014 in a Nashville hospital. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease, as well as Alzheimer’s for a number of years and had been admitted to the hospital ten days earlier…read more |
| Chip Young Obituary | |
 Chip Young, one of Nashville’s finest studio musicians, producers and recording engineers, passed away almost a month after undergoing triple-bypass surgery, at St. Thomas hospital in Nashville, on December 20, 2014…read more
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| Dawn Sears 11th December 2014 | Bob Montgomery 4th December 2014 |
 Dawn Sears, one of country music’s finest, yet vastly underrated, hard-country vocalists, passed away on December 11, 2004 at her home in Gallatin, near Nashville, after a two-year battle with lung cancer. She was 53. Though in recent years she’d become best known as the female vocalist with the acclaimed Time Jumpers in Nashville…read more
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 Bob Montgomery, a successful songwriter, music publisher and record producer, died on December 4, 2014 at his home in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 77. During a music career that stretched back to the early 1950s he worked with Buddy Holly, wrote hit songs for Holly, Patsy Cline, Cliff Richard, Wilma Burgess, Billy Fury and many others…read more
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| Jimmy C Newman 21st June 2014 | Weldon Myrick 2nd June 2014 |
 Jimmy C. Newman, a veteran of the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years, passed away on June 21, 2014 in Nashville after a brief illness. He was 86 years old. He had proved very popular in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s with his vibrant fusion of country and Cajun music..read more
|  Weldon Myrick, one of the most distinctive and creative pedal steel guitarists, passed away on June 2, 2014 at Saint Thomas Hospital, Nashville after suffering a stroke. He was 76. A member of the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame, he had played on recording sessions for such diverse acts as Jerry Jeff Walker, George Strait, Bill Anderson, the Everly Brothers, Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Gary Stewart, Linda Ronstadt and Connie Smith in a career that stretched back over 50 years…read more |
| Bob Powel | Bob Newman 29th April 2014 |
| I’m finding this very hard to write, but I’ve just heard of the passing of Bob Powel. For those unfamiliar with the name, Bob was a true stalwart and larger-than-life figure within country music in the UK throughout the 1970s and 1980s. For many years he was the editor of Country Music People, the host of the long-running London Country on BBC Radio London and also owned and run the CMP Shop in Footscray, compiled albums and wrote the sleeve notes for various major and independent record companies and also built up a strong friendship with many of the legends of country music from Tex Ritter to Tom T. Hall and dozens more…read more |
 Band-leader, bass player and singer Bob Newman sadly passed away on Tuesday April 29. I first met Bob back in the late 1970s, and over the ensuing years met him and his delightful wife Carole Gordon on many occasions, more often than not when I booked them for shows that I promoted in Maidstone. I enjoyed the friendly banter with Bob and Carole and loved working with such professional and dedicated people…read more |
| Jesse Winchester 11th April 2014 | Steven Fromholz 19th January 2014 |
 American singer-songwriter Jesse Winchester sadly passed away on April 11, 2014 at his home in Charlottesville, Virginia following several years battling cancer. He was 69. Jesse Winchester was a product of the South. He was one of those rare writers with the knack of writing timeless, seemingly American melodies that have the distinct flavour of his home region; a kind of wistful French charm blend with a lazy country life you would associate with a hot sticky climate. Yet surprisingly, Winchester, and much of his music, has been completely ignored by country music…read more
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 Steven Fromholz, one of Texas’ foremost singer-songwriters during the 1970s outlaw country era, died on Sunday January 19, 2014 following an accident with a firearm. He was 68. A keen outdoorsman, he was preparing to investigate a feral hog infestation that had been menacing the goat population in Schleicher County. The accident happened at the Flying B Ranch near Eldorado, about 40 miles south of San Angelo…read more |
| Phil Everly 3rd January 2014 | Ray Price 12th December 2013 |
 Phil Everly, one half of the legendary Everly Brothers, passed away on January 3, 2014, at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, at the age of 74. The cause of his death was complications attributed to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (a combination of emphysema and bronchitis)...read more
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 Country music legend Ray Price has died of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 87.He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2011, but ended aggressive treatments on Thursday December 12, after the disease spread to his liver, intestines and lungs. The Country Music Hall of Famer had returned to his ranch outside Mount Pleasant, Texas, last week to receive care…read more
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Glen Campbell, one of the greatest music icons of the 20thcentury, passed away on August 8, 2017, following a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's. He was 81. Though he was a core country artist, Glen Campbell's music was always way too expansive to be limited to one genre. A talented guitarist, smooth-edged vocalist and classy entertainer, he ran the gamut from bluegrass to contemporary country, with excursions into session work (Frank Sinatra, the Crickets and Merle Haggard) and stints with both the Champs and the Beach Boys. 
Mel Tillis, one of the truly major multi-talented entertainers of country music, passed away on November 19, 2017