Paradise Artists Agent Charlie Davis Dies At 68

Longtime Paradise Artists agent Charlie Davis passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday (Aug. 25). He was 68.

Davis’ career in the music industry began in his early twenties as the road manager for Peter Frampton on the “Frampton Comes Alive! Tour.” He later worked as Chubby Checker’s manager for over thirty years before he joined Paradise Artists in 1996. He remained working there until his death. Davis served on the IEBA Board of Directors for over a decade.

Over his career, he has worked with a variety of artists including REO Speedwagon; Bad Company; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Steppenwolf; Joan Jett and the Blackhearts; Weird Al Yankovic Foreigner’s Lou Gramm, Tommy James & The Shondells, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap; and many more.

Pictured (L-R): Charlie Davis, Kell Houston, and Christine Barkley. Photo: Courtesy IEBA

“Charlie Davis was one-of-a-kind. He was universally loved and was a dear, dear friend. It is an understatement to say that he will be dearly missed,” says Howie Silverman, owner of Paradise Artists.

Charlie is survived by his wife Cheryl Mahoney-Davis, stepdaughter Heather Philips, and granddaughters Shannon and Sonia Philips.

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made in Charlie’s memory to the Schuylkill Haven School District Music Department located at 501 East Main Street, Schuylkill Haven, PA, 17972.

Touring Veteran Randy “Baja” Fletcher Passes

Randy “Baja” Fletcher at the Touring Career Workshop in 2016. Photo: Courtesy Chris Lisle

Touring industry veteran and tour production manager Randy “Baja” Fletcher passed away today (Aug. 27), MusicRow has confirmed. Fletcher recently fell at a show site and was critically injured.

Fletcher worked as a Production Manager for ZZ Top, Waylon Jennings, Randy Travis, Brooks & Dunn and most recently with Keith Urban. He was honored with the first-ever CMA Touring Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual CMA Touring Awards in 2017 for all of his contributions.

Fletcher started his near 50-year career in Virginia Beach, Virginia when he was 17. With Bill Deal and the Rhondels, Fletcher traveled with the band up and down the East Coast on solo dates. He also worked with shows of the era that included pop and Motown artists.

In 1978 Feltcher started a 10-year run with Waylon Jennings. During this time he also toured with Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Willie Nelson, and many more. In 1988 he began working with Randy Travis on his first headlining tour, whom he would continue with for five years. In 1992 Fletcher started working with Brooks & Dunn, where he served as the duo’s production manager for 18 years.

In 2011 Fletcher took his current role as production manager for Keith Urban.

After being awarded with the CMA’s first-ever Touring Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017, he was awarded Production Manager Of The Year in 2019 among other industry honors.

Fletcher served in the United States Army, and did a tour of Vietnam.

Memorial details have not yet been announced.

Prolific Drummer Kenny Malone Passes

Kenny Malone. Photo: Courtesy Dave Pomeroy

Lauded drummer and studio musician Kenny Malone died today (Aug. 26) after being hospitalized earlier this week due to COVID-19. He was 83.

Born Aug. 4, 1938 and raised in Denver, Colorado, Malone served in the Navy band in Washington, D.C., eventually becoming head of the percussion department at the Armed Forces School of Music. He made the move to Tennessee in 1970 and quickly found success as a session musician.

Malone was known for his unique hand drumming technique that allowed for a special combination of sounds for his recordings. Spanning folk, country, and other genres with early sessions for John Prine (Sweet Revenge), Dolly Parton (Jolene), Waylon Jennings (Dreaming My Dreams), Ronnie Milsap (Night Things), Wanda Jackson (I’ll Still Love You), and Amy Grant (Amy Grant), among others.

Throughout his nearly 40 year career, Malone has been asked to record for an array of artists, including Carl Perkins, Ray Charles, George Jones, Janie Fricke, Johnny Cash, Don Williams, Dobie Gray, Donna Fargo, David Allen Coe, Merle Haggard, The Whites, Crystal Gayle, Charlie Pride, Moe Bandy, Floyd Cramer, Dr. Hook, Barbara Mandrell, Johnny Paycheck, Kenny Rogers, Michael Johnson, Dottie West, Lynn Anderson, John Hartford, New Grass Revival, Béla Fleck, Barefoot Jerry, B.J. Thomas, Bobby Bare, Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, John Anderson, and Lacy J. Dalton.

Malone is thought to be one of most recorded drummers in Nashville history, although the complete list of his credits is unknown.

“He expanded the vocabulary of Nashville drumming, and was always an innovator who invented his own unique style of hand drumming, often combining sticks and brushes with hand percussion to create a unique sound and feel that left lots of space for other instruments and the vocals. He was well known for asking for a lyric sheet instead of a chord chart, and always put the song first in a way that was very special,” Dave Pomeroy, president of the AFM Local 257, says of the 51-year AFM 257 member.

Malone will be remembered by the Nashville music community for his influence on music and his joke-telling.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.

Hit Songwriter Kim Tribble Dies

Kim Tribble. Photo: Courtesy SESAC

Songwriter Kim Tribble passed away last night (Aug. 25) after a battle with Lewy Body Syndrome.

The songwriter was born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and became an active writer in Nashville in the ’90s.

Among Tribble’s hits are “Guys Do It All the Time” (Mindy McCready), “I Can Still Feel You” (Collin Raye) “A Feelin’ Like That” (Gary Allan), and “One in Every Crowd” (Montgomery Gentry). Tribble also wrote songs with and for Shania Twain, Aaron Tippin, Martina McBride, Jason Aldean, and more. He was a frequent collaborator of David Lee Murphy, having written songs on all of his albums.

Tribble was a SESAC writer, and was honored by the PRO in 2013 for his hit with Chris Cagle’s, “Let There Be Cowgirls.”

Tribble is survived by his wife Patti, daughter Samantha and two granddaughters. An outpouring of tributes to the songwriter on social media remember Tribble’s humor and laugh.

Memorial details have not yet been announced.

Songwriter Craig Karp Dies At 76

Chart-topping country songwriter Craig Karp died on Aug. 15 in Nashville at age 76.

He was the co-writer of “If It Don’t Come Easy,” which hit No. 1 for Tanya Tucker in 1988. Karp also hit the top of the country hit parade with “There’s No Stopping Your Heart,” recorded by Marie Osmond in 1985.

Born Ronald Craig Karp, he came of age in California before embarking on his Nashville songwriting career. His earliest big success was “Second Hand Heart,” a No. 7 country hit of 1984 sung by Gary Morris. He co-wrote two big hits for Southern Pacific. “Honey I Dare You” was a 1988 single by the group that reached No. 5 on the country charts. “All Is Lost” made it to No. 19 on the A/C chart for Southern Pacific in 1989.

Craig Karp also co-wrote songs recorded by T.G. Sheppard, Lynn Anderson, Dave Gibson, Burrito Deluxe, Eddy Raven, Jimmy Fortune, Matt King, Rob Crosby, James House and Wayland Patton.

Carla Monday and Rustie Blue are among the independent-label acts who charted with Karp’s songs. More than two dozen such singers recorded his songs in 1980-2010. Several of them were European recording artists.

Craig Karp is survived by his wife Helen, daughter Casey, son Cody Blue and granddaughter LaDonna Eby. Arrangements are being handled by Woodbine Funeral Home. A celebration of his life will be held at a later date.

Music Publicity Executive Norma Morris Dies At 82

Norma Morris. Photo: Courtesy Morris Public Relations

Noted Nashville music publicity executive Norma Morris died on Friday (Aug. 20) at age 82.

She had been afflicted with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s for several years. Husband and music journalist Ed Morris announced her passing on Facebook.

Norma Morris co-owned Morris Public Relations with her daughter Erin Morris Huttlinger. Often in partnership with Alison Auerbach, they have represented such clients as Exile, Vince Gill, The Time Jumpers, Pete Huttlinger, Nefesh Mountain, Steve Wariner, Ralph Stanley, Paul Cardall, Addison Agen and Teea Goans.

She was the co-author (with Ed) of Free & Low-Coast Publicity for Your Musical Act. She was also a photographer whose work appeared in People, TV Guide and other publications. Prior to living in Nashville, Norma Morris was a college textbook author and a stage performer in musicals.

She was diagnosed with the incurable Alzheimer’s and Parknson’s diseases in 2015. Married in 1960, she and Ed had lived apart for 35 years, but he moved in with her to become her full-time caregiver. He chronicled their life together during her decline in the 2021 book Stardust: An Alzheimer’s Love Story. It compiled his poignant reflections from his Facebook postings about her.

Husband Ed Morris is the former country-music editor at Billboard magazine (1981-95), an editor at Writer’s Digest, a writer for CMT.com, a columnist for Music City News and International Musician, a freelance journalist for many national magazines and the author of Ed Morris’ Complete Guide to Country Music Videos, Garth Brooks: Platinum Cowboy, The Passion of Ethel Rosenberg, At Carter Stanley’s Grave: Musings on Country Music and Musicians, A Killing Froth and Alabama. He is also a poet and a playwright.

Norma Morris’ favorite record was Willie Nelson’s Stardust, which became her “theme music” during her illness. The superstar sent her a video expressing his thanks and best wishes.

In addition to her husband and daughter, Norma Ann Chapman Morris is survived by a son, music publisher Jason Morris. Other family details and funeral arrangements are unknown at press time.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations be sent to support Nashville’s Alive Hospice.

Beloved TV Journalist And Producer Lisa Lee Dies At 52

Lisa Lee. Photo: Courtesy Academy of Country Music

Lisa Lee, senior vice president of creative and content for the Academy of Country Music, passed away on Saturday (Aug. 21) after a battle with brain cancer. She was 52.

Born Alicia Faye Young in Cabot, Arkansas, on Dec. 24, 1968, Lee earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and English from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. After graduation, Lee got a reporting job at Cabot Star-Herald newspaper.

One of her early jobs was at KTAL-TV, an NBC affiliate serving Texarkana and Shreveport, Louisiana, where she began to be interested in entertainment stories. Although her assignments covered a variety of topics, Lee eventually convinced station management to allow her to do movie reviews; she promptly constructed her own little critic’s corner set. She also started covering country music concerts and events in the Arkansas area and surrounding states at this time.

Lee started a friendship with a reporter/producer from Jim Owens and Associates, the Nashville-based production company behind TNN Country News at the time. Soon she was checking in with the folks at Jim Owens, updating them on all the entertainment pieces she was working on, while not so subtly working to convince them to hire her. Her persistence paid off when Jim Owens and Associates hired her, and she moved to Nashville to work for the company from 1995 to 1999.

In 2000, Lee moved to CMT and CMT.com as a news correspondent and producer.

Lee also had a calling to expand the social conversation. She wrote and produced the Prism Award-winning special Addicted to Addiction, as well as the TV news specials Sex in Videos: Where’s the Line and Controversy: Tammy Wynette.

In 2004, Lisa moved to Los Angeles, becoming the Hollywood-based correspondent and West Coast News Bureau Chief for CMT Insider, the network’s interview-driven news show, where she covered music, movies, and television.

In 2007, three years after her move to L.A., Lisa accepted the Academy of Country Music’s offer to draw on her experience as a TV journalist and producer to help the Academy establish and grow their own in-house creative and video production department. As the Academy’s lead staff producer, she oversaw all video production as well as the design, creation, and editing of ACM logos, digital and printed materials including ACM Tempo magazine, the ACM Awards program book, and both the ACM and ACM Lifting Lives websites.

With her long history of production and network teamwork, Lee served as a liaison with CBS television’s creative departments and CBS.com for promos and creative content surrounding the annual ACM Awards. She was named producer of the Academy of Country Music Honors, a live industry event dedicated to celebrating the Academy’s special award honorees, off-camera category winners, and ACM Industry and Studio Recording Awards winners. Held each year at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Lisa imbued the event with a real love for the people who go the extra mile to support, expand, and protect Country Music in its most creative places.

In 2014, Lee wrote and created This Is Country: A Backstage Pass to the Academy of Country Music Awards. The deeply researched coffee table book celebrated the 50 the anniversary of the ACM Awards and included a forward by Reba McEntire.

Lee was a member of the Writers Guild of America. She was also a Leadership Music alum.

Lisa Lee is survived by her parents, Charlie and Faye Young; her husband (and high school sweetheart) Doug Lee; daughter Grayson, and son Jackson. Also, in laws Phillip and Sarah Lee of Cabot and many other Lee family members. She was preceded in death by her grandparents and brothers, Jason Young and Dennis Young.

Visitation is to be held this Friday from 5-8 pm at Moores Funeral Home, 700 North Second Street, Cabot, Arkansas followed by a memorial service Saturday. To stay updated on details for next weekend’s services, the celebration of life to be held in Nashville at a later date, and to support her family by contributing to her memorial fund, please click here.

Luke Bryan & Lisa Lee. Photo: Courtesy of Academy of Country Music

“Lisa has always been a light inside our industry,” shares Luke Bryan. “Her ability for telling not only my story but the story of so many was unmatched because it was from her heart. She truly loved her job and it showed on her face every time she was around. I will miss her.”

“I always loved getting to visit with Lisa whether it be about the music business or an interview. She was a huge asset to our business. I sure will miss her smiling face,” comments Reba McEntire.

“We lost one of our true lights yesterday. Lisa Lee was one of the most passionate and caring people I’ve ever met. Her love and appreciation of music, and the artists who made it, was everything you’d ever want,” adds Keith Urban. “I loved being interviewed by her for that reason and because she always brought such a warmth into the room. Peace be with all of her family today.”

“It is certainly a sad day for Country Music. We have lost a bright light and true leader in our business who cared deeply for telling the story of the music, artists and creators,” Lori Badgett, ACM Chair & Senior Vice President of City National Bank says. “Our hearts go out to her entire family, especially her husband, Doug and precious children, Grayson and Jackson at this terribly difficult time. We look forward to honoring her in many ways in the future.”

Lisa Lee & Kenny Chesney. Photo: Courtesy of Lisa’s Instagram

“Lisa Lee and I grew up together in this business. She was a TV reporter, producer, writer and big executive. She covered my heroes and my friends, she wrote about me and my mother,” Kenny Chesney says. “She truly cared about country music – and I absolutely cared about her. Good-bye, my sweet friend.”

“The Academy has lost a huge part of its heart and soul with the passing of Lisa Lee. She was a champion for Country Music and fiercely dedicated to the Academy’s mission for her over 15 years of service to the ACM,” shares Damon Whiteside, CEO, Academy of Country Music. “She is irreplaceable, but her heart and spirit will live on throughout our industry. ACM Honors was her favorite event, and I know she will be singing along and smiling down on us from above on Wednesday night.”

Lisa Lee & Reba McEntire. Photo: Courtesy of Lisa’s Instagram

“Ever since she joined the Academy, she became the heart, the soul and the historian for the ACM… On a personal level, I relied on her to keep me honest when it came to telling the Academy’s story. She had such depth of knowledge and passion. I will miss her tremendously,” comments RAC Clark, Executive Producer of the ACM Awards, 1999 to present, ACM Board Member and interim Executive Director of the Academy of Country Music 2019.

“I always loved getting to visit with Lisa whether it be about the music business or an interview. She was a huge asset to our business. I sure will miss her smiling face,” comments Reba McEntire.

Rock And Country Titan Don Everly Passes [Updated]

The Everly Brothers. Photo: Country Music Hall of Fame

Don Everly, one of the most influential artists in pop-music history, died in Nashville on Saturday (Aug. 21).

His death at age 84 was confirmed yesterday by Variety, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, the BBC and other worldwide media outlets. As half of The Everly Brothers, he became an inaugural inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The team is also in the Country Music Hall of Fame. The Everlys have sold more than 40 million records. They toured globally for six decades.

Don and younger brother Phil Everly (1939-2014) were famed for their spine-tingling vocal harmonies, The Everly Brothers were profound influences on artists ranging from The Beatles to Simon & Garfunkel. Their sound has been cited by The Byrds, The Eagles, Peter & Gordon, The Hollies, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, The Beach Boys, Rodney Crowell, The Bee Gees and every harmony duo that has succeeded them.

Don’s driving, open-tuned, steel-string guitar work was also influential. Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones is among many who emulated it.

Don Everly was the writer behind such enduring songs as “Cathy’s Clown,” “So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad),” “(‘Til) I Kissed You” and “The Price of Love.” Both he and Phil also had solo recording careers.

Born in 1937, Isaac Donald Everly was the son of country entertainers Ike Everly (1908-1975) and Margaret Everly. He was born in the family’s home state of Kentucky. Phil followed two years later. He was born in Chicago, where Ike was working in local clubs and on WLS radio.

Former coal miner Ike Everly was an accomplished guitarist whose distinctive thumb-picking style was admired by Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, Mark Knopfler and many others. Don was mentored by his father from an early age, and made his debut as a radio performer in 1945 when Ike was working at KMA in Shenandoah, Iowa. He had a regular singing segment as “Little Donnie.”

The Everly parents and their sons turned their radio appearances into a family affair when Margaret, Don and Phil joined Ike’s act. Thus, The Everly Brothers became show-biz professionals in 1949, when Don was 12 and Phil was 10. The family relocated to WROL in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1953.

Ike contacted Chet Atkins in Nashville, who took an interest in Don’s songwriting. Atkins took the teenager’s song “Thou Shalt Not Steal” to Kitty Wells, who scored a big country hit with it in 1954. In addition, Anita Carter recorded Don’s “Here We Are Again.” After he graduated from high school, the brothers moved to Nashville.

Still shepherded by Atkins, The Everly Brothers signed with Columbia Records in 1955 and issued “The Sun Keeps Shining”/ “Keep A Lovin’ Me,” both Everly originals. The single went nowhere. Atkins kept plugging away on the brothers’ behalf. They were rejected by RCA and Capitol. But Justin Tubb recorded their song “The Life I Have to Live” for Decca in 1957.

The Everly Brothers. Photo: Ed Caraeff

Wesley Rose at Acuff-Rose Publishing signed the boys to songwriting contracts and took them to Cadence Records. Acuff-Rose staff writers Boudleaux & Felice Bryant supplied the Everlys with “Bye Bye Love,” to which Don applied a rollicking Bo Diddley beat. In the summer of 1957, it rocketed to the top of the pop, r&b and country charts. Backed by Don and Chet’s ringing guitars, the single combined the brothers’ hillbilly harmonies with the punch of rhythm & blues, a perfect distillation of the emerging rock & roll sensibility.

The single’s flip side also charted. Credited to both Don and Phil, “I Wonder If I Care As Much” has since been recorded by Dickey Lee, Johnny Winter, Robin & Linda Williams, Tracy Nelson, Andy Kim and more. In 1987, it was a country hit for Ricky Skaggs.

Although they effortlessly switched harmony vocal parts, Don generally sang lead, was usually the dominant songwriter and led the band. Phil’s electrifying high harmonies and “sock” rhythm guitar rounded out their thrilling sound.

The follow-up single to “Bye Bye Love” was the even bigger hit “Wake Up Little Susie,” again penned by the Bryants. Don once again wrote the flip side, “Maybe Tomorrow.” It was subsequently sung by Don Gibson, The Browns, Englebert Humperdinck, Richard Leigh and Del Shannon, among others.

In 1957-59, the Bryants supplied The Everly Brothers with additional major hit songs – “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” “Bird Dog,” “Devoted to You,” “Problems,” “Take a Message to Mary” and more.

The brothers continued to contribute their own compositions to the cause. The Everly-penned success “Should We Tell Him” of 1958 was revived by The Flying Burrito Brothers in 1990. Don’s “(‘Til) I Kissed You” was a top-10 Everly hit in 1959. The song is now certified as a Million-Air song by BMI, thanks to recordings by Tom Wopat, Kenny Rogers, Connie Smith (top-10 in 1976), The Angels, Johnny Rodrguez, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Sue Thompson, Sandy Posey, Anne Murray and others. The hit single’s flip side was also a Don Everly song, “Oh What a Feeling.”

The brothers paused in their rocking and rolling to create their acclaimed 1958 LP Songs Our Daddy Taught Us. This eloquently gentle, folk/country collection was ahead of its time and an early “concept” album.

Between 1957 and 1959 the duo had eight million-selling singles. In 1960, the Everlys became the first artists to be offered a million-dollar recording contract when they signed with the fledgling Warner Bros. Records. Their presence on the label led to it becoming a major force in the music world.

The Everly Brothers. Photo: Courtesy Robert K. Oermann

Don’s song “Cathy’s Clown” became their first hit for the company. It sold three million copies, the biggest selling record of their career. It also became an evergreen, with recordings by Pat Boone, The Shadows, The Williams Brothers, The Springer Brothers, Neil Sedaka, Dee Dee Ramone and more. Reba McEntire’s giant country smash with “Cathy’s Clown” led to it being named BMI’s Country Song of the Year in 1990.

Phil provided the team with the 1960 hit “When Will I Be Loved.” Don followed suit by penning “So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad)” as the follow-up single. The song has since been a country hit for Hank Williams Jr. & Lois Johnson (1970), Connie Smith (1976) and Emmylou Harris (1983). It has also been recorded by Tammy Wynette, Del Reeves, Frank Ifield, Dillard & Clark, Mott the Hoople, Steve Wariner, Albert Lee, Louise Mandrell, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Bryan Hyland, The Hombres and John Prine, to name a few.

Don’s “Since You Broke My Heart” (1960) has been reprised by The Searchers, The Chocolate Watchband, Terry Jacks and Dino, Desi & Billy. The Everly Brothers hits with Warners continued, particularly overseas. “Walk Right Back,” “Ebony Eyes,” “Temptation,” “Stick with Me Baby,” “Don’t Blame Me,” “Crying in the Rain,” “How Can I Meet Her,” “No One Can Make My Sunshine Smile” and “The Ferris Wheel” were big British Everly successes in 1961-64.

The brothers served in the Marines in 1961-62. Don was troubled, hospitalized and sidelined by drug and psychological problems in late 1962.

Both Don and Phil are credited with writing 1964’s “Gone, Gone, Gone.” It has been covered by The Ventures, The Surfaris, Crow and Fairport Convention. In 2007, it was a stand-out track on Raising Sand, the Grammy Album of the Year by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.

The brothers’ composition “The Price of Love” became a No. 1 hit on the British charts in 1965. It has since been recorded by a myriad of acts, including The Move, Bryan Ferry, The Status Quo, Poco, The Highthawks, Roxy Music, The Cactus Brothers, The Kinleys, BR5-49 and Buddy Miller.

The Everlys continued to record for Warner Bros. throughout the rest of the decade. Their 1968 LP for the label, Roots, is regarded as one of the seminal country-rock records. In 1970, the siblings starred in a network TV variety series on ABC, Johnny Cash Presents The Everly Brothers.

A contract with RCA resulted in the albums Stories We Could Tell (1972) and Pass the Chicken and Listen (1973). The latter was produced by their old benefactor, Chet Atkins.

The brothers broke up in 1973. Phil settled in L.A. Don returned to Nashville.

Don issued his solo albums Don Everly (1971, Ode Records), Sunset Towers (1974, Ode Records) and Brother Jukebox (1977, Hickory Records). He made the country charts with “Yesterday Just Passed My Way Again,” “Since You Broke My Heart” and “Brother Jukebox” in 1976-77.

After a decade of estrangement, The Everly Brothers joined forces again in 1983. Their reunion concert in London’s Royal Albert Hall aired around the world on HBO.

Paul McCartney wrote their 1984 comeback single “On the Wings of a Nightingale.” It became their first music video. Don’s song “Born Yesterday” brought the duo back into the country top-20 in 1986, and it, too, spawned a hit video.

He also wrote “Asleep,” “Some Hearts,” “Be My Love Again,” “Can’t Get Over It” and “Three Bands of Steel” for the team’s 1984-88 comeback albums on Mercury Records. His “Following the Sun” and “You Make It Seem So Easy” inspired music videos in 1984 and 1986, respectively.

In 1986, The Everly Brothers were among the 10 debut selections for the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Neil Young inducted the Everlys. Of their fellow pioneer inductees—Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and Little Richard—Don’s death makes Lewis the only one still living.

The Everlys final appearance on the charts was on a 1989 remake of “Ballad of a Teenage Queen” with Johnny Cash and Rosanne Cash. Heartaches and Harmonies was issued as their four-CD, boxed-set salute in 1994.

The Everly Brothers were given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. They were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001.

In 2003-04, Don and Phil toured with Simon & Garfunkel nationwide. It was the farewell concert tour for the latter duo, whose career began in imitation of the Everly Brothers.

The siblings drifted apart again around 2005. Phil eventually settled south of Nashville, in Columbia, Tennessee. He passed away in 2014.

Four Everly Brothers tribute records were released in 2013. Norah Jones and Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong offered Foreverly. The Chapin Sisters issued A Date With The Everly Brothers. The albums Bird Dogs and What the Brothers Sang came from The Wieners and Bonnie Prince Billy & Dawn McCarthy, respectively.

One of Don’s last notable public appearances was when he joined Paul Simon to sing “Bye Bye Love” at the latter’s 2018 Nashville concert. In 2019, Don was voted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville.

Don and Phil Everly have been the subjects of a theater musical, 1998’s Bye Bye Love. They have provided authors with the material for at least four books, John Hosum’s Living Legends: An Illustrated Discography (1985), Phyllis Karpp’s Ike’s Boys (1988), Consuelo Dodge’s The Everly Brothers: Ladies Love Outlaws (1991) and Roger White’s The Everly Brothers: Walk Right Back (1998).

Don Everly is survived by his wife of 24 years, Adela, his son Edan. and daughters Venetia, Stacy and Erin, once married to Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose. He is also survived by his mother Margaret Everly, who is 102. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

“The Storyteller“ Tom T. Hall Passes [Updated]

Tom T. Hall. Photo: Courtesy Robert K. Oermann

Country Music Hall of Fame member Tom T. Hall has died at age 85.

Known as “The Storyteller,” the singer-songwriter and Grand Ole Opry star passed away on Friday, according to his son Dean Hall. He had been in failing health for several years.

Tom T. Hall created such indelible songs as “Harper Valley P.T.A.” for Jeannie C. Riley, “Little Bitty” for Alan Jackson and “How I Got to Memphis” for Bobby Bare. As a recording artist, he placed more than 50 singles on the country popularity charts in 1967-87, 21 of which became top-10 hits.

The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee was born near Olive Hill, KY in 1936. His family was poor, but the boy’s upbringing was relatively carefree. He picked up the guitar at age four and wrote his first song when he was nine.

His childhood ended at age 13 when his mother died, as did his boyhood musical hero, the latter immortalized in his 1971 hit “The Year That Clayton Delaney Died.” When he was 15, his father was shot and wounded in a hunting accident, Hall dropped out of school and went to work in a garment factory, a “sweat shop.”

He joined a local bluegrass band and began appearing on WMOR radio in Morehead, Kentucky. When his fellow musicians were drafted for the Korean War, Hall remained at the station as a disc jockey.

In 1957, he enlisted in the Army for a three-year hitch. While stationed in Germany, he earned his high-school diploma and performed in a servicemen’s country band. He impressed the G.I.’s with his original songs. His 1970 hit “Salute to a Switchblade” was inspired during this time.

Back in civilian life, he resumed work as a D.J. and attended college in Virginia on the G.I. Bill. An acquaintance sent his songs to Nashville, where Newkeys Music signed him to a songwriting contract. The company’s co-founder Jimmy C. Newman turned Hall’s “D.J. For a Day” into a top-10 country hit in 1963. On Jan. 1, 1964, Tom T. Hall moved to Music City with $46 and a guitar.

Within months of his arrival, Dave Dudley scored with Hall’s songs “Mad” (1964) and “What We’re Fighting For” (1965). Dudley subsequently issued singles of eight additional Hall songs, including the No. 1 hit “The Pool Shark” (1970). Newman reprised his support with the top-10 hits “Artificial Rose” (1965) and “Back Pocket Money” (1966). Meanwhile, Johnny Wright hit No.1 in 1965 with Hall’s “Hello Vietnam.”

Mercury Records signed Tom T. Hall as a recording artist, and he debuted on the country charts with the top-40 hit “I Washed My Face in the Morning Dew” in 1967. During that same year, fellow Mercury artist Margie Singleton asked him to write her a song. She was out of town when he finished it, so newcomer Jeannie C. Riley was pitched the tune. Her version of “Harper Valley P.T.A.” was recorded on a Friday night in 1968. By Saturday afternoon, radio stations were playing it. By the close of the following week, factories were shipping the singles to stores as fast as they could press them.

“Harper Valley P.T.A.” topped the pop and country charts, sold six million copies, won a Grammy and a CMA award, inspired a movie and a TV series and became a national sensation. Tom T. Hall never recorded it.

Instead, he released his debut top-10 hit in 1968, “Ballad of Forty Dollars.” The following year, he repeated the feat with “Homecoming.” In 1970, he had his first No. 1 hit as an artist, “A Week in a Country Jail.”

With songs like these, Tom T. Hall vaulted to the front ranks of Nashville songwriters. Along with Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury, Dolly Parton and a handful of others, he transformed country songwriting, taking the artform to new levels of insight and sensitivity.

Bobby Bare scored with Hall’s “(Margie’s At) The Lincoln Park Inn,” “The Town That Broke My Heart” and “How I Got to Memphis” in 1968-70. The last-named became a perennial favorite, thanks to recordings by Buddy Miller, Rosanne Cash, Solomon Burke, Eric Church, Ronnie Dunn, The Avett Brothers, Kelly Willis, Lee Hazelwood and Deryl Dodd, among others.

As a recording artist, Hall’s next No. 1 hits were 1971’s “The Year That Clayton Delaney Died” plus 1973’s “(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine” and “I Love.” They opened the floodgates for a string of top-10 smashes, including “Ravishing Ruby,” “County Is,” “I Like Beer,” “Faster Horses,” “Fox on the Run” and “Your Man Loves You Honey.” All were produced by legendary session guitarist Jerry Kennedy.

Hall’s peers voted him into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1978, but he was far from finished. Success continued on RCA Records with “I Wish I Loved Somebody Else” (1978), “What Have You Got to Lose” (1978), “The Old Side of Town” (1980) and more.

Despite the hit records, he insisted he wasn’t a “star.” Nevertheless, he was the TV host of the nationally syndicated Pop Goes the Country (1980-83), the longtime commercial spokesman for Tyson Chicken and Chevy Trucks, a guest on the top variety and talk shows and an inductee into the Opry cast.

And despite being something of a “loner” in Nashville, he discovered Johnny Rodriguez and brought him to town. He championed songwriter Billy Joe Shaver by recording “Old Five and Dimers Like Me” and “Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me.” He teamed with Earl Scruggs on a 1982 LP that introduced the future Alabama No. 1 hit “Song of the South.” He sang with Johnny Cash on his 1988 composition “The Last of the Drifters.”

Hall returned to Mercury Records in the mid-1980s and recorded a series of albums in rural Florida in the following decade. One song from these sessions was “Little Bitty,” which became a No. 1 hit for Alan Jackson in 1996.

Storyteller, Poet, Philosopher was issued as the Tom T. Hall boxed set in 1995. The title reflects the literary bent that underlies his music. He published six books, including the novel The Laughing Man of Woodmont Cove, a short-story collection titled The Acts of Life and the autobiographical The Storyteller’s Nashville.

The depth of Tom T. Hall’s songwriting catalog is revealed on such albums as I Witness Life (1970), 100 Children (1971), In Search of a Song (1971), We All Got Together And (1972), The Storyteller (1972), The Rhymer and Other Five and Dimers (1973) and his much- loved children’s album Songs of Fox Hollow (1974). The last-named was saluted with a tribute album in 2011.

He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008. He was presented with a BMI Icon award three years later.

In 1968, Tom T. Hall married song lyricist and former Music City News journalist Dixie Dean (1934-2015). Born in England as Iris Violet May Lawrence, she blossomed as his song collaborator in the 1990s. Separately and together, they enjoyed more than 500 bluegrass recordings of their songs.

Hall had grown up playing bluegrass and dedicated his 1976 LP The Magnificent Music Machine to the genre. He often opened his Toy Box Studio to bluegrass bands. Dixie formed a bluegrass song-publishing company and record label. Tom T. and Dixie Hall were inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2018.

Literary scholars have taught Tom T. Hall’s songs as poetry in university courses. More than anyone, Hall illustrated the elevation of country songwriting from a simple folk art to an expression that can plumb the depths of the soul, comment on politics, paint a vivid personality portrait, observe an emotional tumult or take a snapshot of the social world. Even decades after their creation, the best of them remain extraordinary listening experiences.

Tom T. Hall died at his home, Fox Hollow, according to his son Dean Hall, a blues-rock performer. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

Tom T. Hall speaks at the 2008 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee press conference on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008 at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. Photo: John Russell

“Tom T. Hall’s masterworks vary in plot, tone and tempo, but they are bound by his ceaseless and unyielding empathy for the triumphs and losses of others,” says Kyle Young, CEO, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “He wrote without judgment or anger, offering a rhyming journalism of the heart that sets his compositions apart from any other writer. His songs meant the world to Bobby Bare, Johnny Cash, George Jones and other greats, and those songs will continue to speak to generations. He was a storyteller, a philosopher, a whiskey maker, a novelist, a poet, a painter, a benefactor, a letter writer, a gift giver, a gentleman farmer and many more things. My bet is that we won’t see the likes of him again, but if we do I’ll be first in line for tickets to the show.”

“Few could tell a story like Tom T. Hall. As a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist, he was one of those triple threat artists who continued to make an impact on the next generation. I’ll always remember growing up listening to Tom T.’s music with my father, who was a huge bluegrass and country fan,” says Sarah Trahern, Country Music Association, CEO

Renowned Singer-Songwriter Nanci Griffith Passes

Nanci Griffith

American singer, guitarist, and songwriter Nanci Griffith passed away today (Friday, Aug. 13). She was 68.

Born Nanci Caroline Griffith in Austin, Texas, Griffith became known for her unique version of country-folk music.

She released over 20 albums, perhaps most notably her 1993 project Other Voices, Other Rooms, which consisted entirely of cover songs, in tribute to songwriters who influenced her own songwriting. Other Voices, Other Rooms earned a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1994.

As a songwriter, some of Griffith’s greatest hits include Kathy Mattea’s cover of “Love at the Five and Dime” and Suzy Bogguss’s hit with “Outbound Plane.”

Griffith was awarded the Kate Wolf Memorial Award by the World Folk Music Association in 1995, and in 2008 the Americana Music Association awarded her its Lifetime Achievement Trailblazer Award. Most recently Griffith was invited to be a member of the Texas Heritage Songwriters’ Association’s Hall of Fame. She was to be inducted in February of 2022.

“Nanci Griffith was a master songwriter who took every opportunity to champion kindred spirits, including Vince Bell, Elizabeth Cook, Iris DeMent, Julie Gold, Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett, Eric Taylor and Townes Van Zandt,” said Kyle Young, CEO, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “Her voice was a clarion call, at once gentle and insistent. Her brilliant album The Last of the True Believers is a template for what is now called Americana music, and her Grammy-winning Other Voices, Other Rooms is a compelling guide to 20th-century folk songs. Nanci offered gifts that no one else could give.”

Griffith is a survivor of breast cancer which was diagnosed in 1996, and thyroid cancer in 1998.

Her death was confirmed by her management company, Gold Mountain Entertainment. A cause of death was not provided.

Memorial services have not yet been announced.