Southern Rock Veteran Donnie Winters Passes

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Donnie Winters

Nashville’s Donnie Winters, who achieved notoriety in the Southern rock group The Winters Brothers Band and later became a go-to sound engineer in this city’s nightclubs, has passed away at age 73.

Winters died at home in Bellevue due to complications from pneumonia he contracted as a COVID victim in 2021. He died on Aug. 18, the day before his 74th birthday.

In The Winters Brothers Band, Donnie sang and played lead guitar. The group recorded six albums, starred at seven of the legendary Volunteer Jam concerts and toured with The Marshall Tucker Band, The Charlie Daniels Band and other Southern rock headliners.

As a sound man, he aided generations of aspiring Nashville songwriters by mixing their performances’ audio at nightclub writers’ nights for decades. He was also a songwriter, himself.

Donnie Winters was the grandson of “Pop” Winters, who led the swinging Southern Strollers band in the 1940s. His father was Don Winters (1929-2002), a golden-voiced singer and yodeler who scored a double-sided country hit with his self-composed “Too Many Times”/“Shake Hands With a Loser” in 1961. Don Winters recorded for Decca and RCA and was a member of the Marty Robbins road show for more than 30 years.

Sons Dennis and Donnie grew up in this atmosphere, and superstar Robbins recorded 10 of their songs. After the siblings heard the early records of The Allman Brothers, they styled their music in a Southern-rock mode and formed The Winters Brothers Band.

The group achieved prominence beginning with its self-titled 1976 debut LP, recorded at the Capricorn studios in Georgia for Atco Records. The collection’s singles “Sang Her Love Songs” and “Smokey Mountain Log Cabin Jones” received regional airplay. The album was produced by Taz DiGregorio of The Charlie Daniels Band.

During this era, Winters toured with The Marshall Tucker Band and was booked to open shows on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1977 tour. But a plane crash decimated Skynyrd, and that tour never happened.

The follow-up Winters Brothers Band Atco/Atlantic album was 1977’s Coast to Coast, but it remained unreleased until 2007. In the meantime, the group issued Keep on Running (1982), Southern Rockers (2000) and Southeast Stampede (2004). In 1984, Donnie and Dennis joined their father on the LP The Yodeling King. That record contained Don’s renditions of country classics plus trio vocals and solo performances by both Donnie and Dennis.

The Winters Brothers Band also appeared on several of the commemorative albums of the Charlie Daniels Volunteer Jam marathon concerts. The Winters boys were regulars at these quasi annual all-star events, 1974-2018.

Donnie Winters played in several bands on the Nashville showcase circuit. These included Willi X. Evans & Hillbilly Mardi Gras, Shotgun Riders and Donnie Winters & The Copperhead Band. He continued to perform at songwriter nights throughout his life.

In the new millennium, he made a career transition and became a sound man for music venues. Beginning in 2000, he worked as the house sound engineer at The Sutler Saloon. When The Sutler closed, Winters moved to perform the same duties at Douglas Corner. While there, he hosted a weekly open-mic writers night. At both clubs, he often sat in to back performers on guitar or dobro.

For more than 25 years Donnie and Dennis Winters co-hosted annual Sumer Jam music festivals at the family’s farm in Nolensville, Tennessee. He and his brother also co-hosted an “unplugged” cable-access TV series of songs and stories.

In later years, Donnie became a regular participant in The Commodore Grille’s writers nights run by Debi Champion at the Holiday Inn Vanderbilt. Out at Metro Center in the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel, he mixed sound and performed at Lee Rascone’s twice weekly writers nights.

Donald Leroy Winters is survived by Paula, his wife of 44 years, by son Derek, brother Dennis, sister Jackie, three grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. His funeral was held Aug. 24 at West Harpeth Funeral home on Charlotte Pike.

Robert K Oermann
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