Montgomery Gentry’s Troy Gentry Dies In Helicopter Crash

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Pictured (L-R): Eddie Montgomery, Troy Gentry

Troy Gentry, half of the popular country duo, Montgomery Gentry, died in a helicopter crash today (Sept. 8), at approximately 1 p.m. in Medford, New Jersey at the Flying W Airport & Resort, where the band was scheduled to perform tonight. He was 50 years old.

Another unidentified man also died when the Schweitzer 269 helicopter crashed in a wooded area off the end of a runway. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.

With 20 plus charted singles, the Kentucky-born duo has earned CMA, ACM, and GRAMMY awards and nominations with blue-collar anthems like “Hell Yeah,” “My Town,” and “Hillbilly Shoes.” They’ve notched five No. 1 singles (“If You Ever Stop Loving Me,” “Something To Be Proud Of,” “Lucky Man,” “Back When I Knew It All” and “Roll With Me”), were inducted as Grand Ole Opry members in 2009 and were inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

The band was working on a new album for Average Joes.

This is the second death in the Gentry family this year, Troy’s father, Lloyd Gentry passed away Aug. 13 in Nicholasville, Ky.

The Gentry family wishes to acknowledge all of the kind thoughts and prayers, and asks for privacy at this time.

Country Music Hall Of Fame Great Don Williams Passes

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Don Williams, known for his mellow, laid-back delivery of more than 30 top-10 country hits during a four-decade career on the charts, has died at age 78.

A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, the singer-songwriter was an international ambassador for the genre, achieving enormous popularity in Germany, Sweden, Kenya, South Africa and New Zealand, as well as England and Ireland, His enduring classics include “Tulsa Time,” “I Believe In You,” “I’m Just a Country Boy,” “Good Ole Boys Like Me” and “Amanda.”

A native of Floydada, Texas, Williams began playing guitar as a teenager. During his youth, he worked in oil fields. drove a bread truck, labored in a smelting plant, worked for Pittsburgh Plate Glass and was a bill collector.

In Corpus Christi, he formed the folk trio The Pozo Seco Singers with Susan Taylor and Lofton Kline. The three traveled to Nashville to record with producer Bob Johnston and scored on the pop charts with a series of singles including “Time” (1966), “I’ll Be Gone” (1966), “I Can Make it With You” (1966) and “Look What You’ve Done” (1967).

Following a pair of albums for Columbia Records, Kline departed. Taylor and Williams returned to Nashville as Pozo Seco to record their 1970 LP Spend Some Time With Me at Jack Clement’s studio. Williams returned to Texas to work at his father-in-law’s furniture business. Taylor summoned him back to Nashville to write songs for her emerging solo career. She and Williams were soon signed to Clement’s JMI Records label as individual artists.

Don Williams debuted on the charts with his self-penned JMI single “The Shelter of Your Eyes” in late 1972. The following year, he had the two-sided success “Come Early Morning” and “Amanda.” The first named inspired what is believed to have been country’s first concept video. The latter became an even bigger hit for Waylon Jennings six years later.

In 1974, Williams had his first top-10 hit, “We Should Be Together.” He signed with Dot Records and scored “I Wouldn’t Want to Live if You Didn’t Love Me” as his first No. 1 smash later that same year. He followed it with a country revival of the Brook Benton oldie “The Ties That Bind.”

Between 1975 and 1978, he had seven consecutive No. 1 country hits — “You’re My Best Friend” (1975), “(Turn Out the Lights and) Love Me Tonight” (1975). “Til the Rivers All Run Dry” (1976), “Say It Again” (1976), “She Never Knew Me” (1976), “Some Broken Hearts Never Mend” (1977) and “I’m Just a Country Boy” (1977).

Williams made his movie debut in 1975’s W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings. This appearance led to his adopting his trademark hat. He also appeared in the 1980 film Smokey and the Bandit II. Buoyed by the British success of his singles, Williams traveled to England to appear at The Wembley Festival in 1976. This marked the advent of his wide popularity overseas throughout the remainder of his career. By the dawn of the 1980s, he was also a superstar in Canada.

Dot became ABC/Dot, then ABC and then MCA Records as Williams continued to score hit after hit. In 1978 came “I’ve Got a Winner in You,” “Rake and a Rambling Man” and “Tulsa Time.” The last named was revived by Eric Clapton on the pop hit parade two years later. Don Williams won the CMA Male Vocalist of the Year award in 1978. He finished out the decade with “Lay Down Beside Me,” “It Must Be Love” and “Love Me All Over Again.” “It Must Be Love” turned out to be another evergreen. Alan Jackson brought it back to the top of the charts in 2000.

The Don Williams hit “Good Old Boys Like Me” of 1980 is regarded as one of country’s most poetic lyrics. It was written by Bob McDill, who was also behind 11 of the singer’s other top-10 hits. Others to whom Williams regularly turned for material included Allen Reynolds, Wayland Holyfield and Roger Cook.

Cook and Sam Hogin co-wrote “I Believe in You,” which returned Williams to the pop charts in 1980. It was later revived by Bette Midler. Williams had a banner year in 1981 with “Falling Again,” “Miracles,” “Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good” and the Emmylou Harris duet “If I Needed You.” That fall, the CMA named his I Believe In You its Album of the Year.

He remained with MCA into the middle of the decade, repeatedly topping the charts with such singles as “If Hollywood Don’t Need You,” “Love Is on a Roll,” “Stay Young” and “That’s the Thing About Love.” Throughout this era, Don Williams records were produced by Garth Funds, and two remained a team when the star signed with Capitol Records in 1986. The hits “We’ve Got a Good Fire Goin,” “Heartbeat in the Darkness” and “Then it’s Love” kicked off his Capitol career. These were followed with 1987’s equally successful “Senorita,” “I’ll Never Be in Love Again” and “I Wouldn’t Be a Man.” In 1988-89 he scored with “Another Place, Another Time,” “Desperately” and “Old Coyote Town.”

Williams moved to RCA in 1989. His last seven top-10 hits were on this label, including “One Good Well” (1989), “I’ve Been Loved by the Best” (1990) and his final one, “Lord Have Mercy on a Country Boy” (1991). Josh Turner revived the last-named in 2006.

Although no longer a chart topper, Don Williams continued to perform for sold-out crowds both at home and abroad for the next 20 years. He attempted to retire in 2006, but returned to the road in 2010, the same year he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He also had regular success as a songwriter. Among those who have recorded his songs are Kenny Rogers (“Lay Down Beside Me”), Charley Pride (“The Shelter of Your Eyes”), Lefty Frizzell (“If She Just Helps Me Get Over You”), Johnny Cash (“Down the Road I Go”), Jeanne Pruett (“Lay Down Beside Me”), Sonny James (“If She Just Helps Me Get Over You”) and rock star Pete Townsend (“Til the Rivers All Run Dry”).

Williams returned to recording with the Sugar Hill Records albums And So It Goes (2012) and Reflections (2014). His enduring appeal was reflected in the fact that both made the top-20 on the country album charts. He also released a live CD and DVD in 2016.

He announced his retirement last year. Earlier this year, producer Fundis created a tribute CD to him, titled Gentle Giants as a tip of the hat to the performer’s longtime nickname. It included performances of Williams’ hits by Chris Stapleton, Alison Krauss, Garth Brooks, Keb Mo, Lady Antebellum and Trisha Yearwood, among others.

Don Williams had been in declining health for several months. He died on Friday, September 8. He is survived by his wife Joy and sons Gary and Timmy. Arrangements are pending.

“In giving voice to songs like “Good Ole Boys Like Me,” “Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good,” and “Amanda,” Don Williams offered calm, beauty, and a sense of wistful peace that is in short supply these days,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “His music will forever be a balm in troublesome times. Everyone who makes country music with grace, intelligence, and ageless intent will do so while standing on the shoulders of this gentle giant.”

Jerry Esposito, Brother Of WMN Chairman/CEO John Esposito, Passes

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Pictured (L-R): Jerry Esposito and John Esposito in 1976.

Jerry Esposito, brother of Warner Music Nashville Chairman and CEO John Esposito, passed away Thursday (Aug. 31) at his home in Shelburne, Vermont, following a heroic battle with cancer. Funeral arrangements are pending for “Espo’s” older brother, who was born three years to the day before him.

Bluegrass Great Pete Kuykendall Passes

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Pete Kuykendall. Photo: IBMA

Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Pete Kuykendall has died in Virginia at age 79.

It would be hard to overstate Kuykendall’s importance to the bluegrass industry. He co-founded The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). He created Bluegrass Unlimited, the magazine that is the genre’s bible. He was a songwriter of bluegrass standards, including “I Am Weary Let Me Rest” on the million-selling Grammy Album of the Year O Brother Where Art Thou.

He was a former member of the famed band The Country Gentlemen. He was instrumental in the formation of the International Bluegrass Museum in Kentucky. He was a music publisher, a studio owner, a record producer, an event promoter, a music journalist, a radio disc jockey and a historian/archivist.

Dave Freeman of Rebel Records has said, “Without him, I don’t know where bluegrass music would be today.”

Born in Washington D.C. in 1938, Pete Kuykendall was an avid record collector as a boy. He learned to play banjo and became a member of The Country Gentlemen in 1958-59. He also was a country disc jockey in Maryland and Virginia.

During this same period, Kuykendall began writing for Disc Collector magazine. He was one of the first to write seriously about the records of Bill Monroe, Reno & Smiley, Flatt & Scruggs, The Stanley Brothers and other bluegrass pioneers. He has been called “the first discographer of bluegrass music.”

He worked briefly at the Library of Congress transferring its rare cylinders and acetate discs to magnetic tape. In addition, he built Wynwood Recording Studio in the basement of his house in Falls Church, VA. He recorded a number of country, bluegrass, folk and blues performers there, including Mississippi John Hurt in 1964.

Even after he left the group, Kuykendall produced several Country Gentlemen albums in the early 1960s. He also produced Red Allen and a number of other bluegrass artists.

In 1966, he co-founded Bluegrass Unlimited, initially as a typed and mimeographed newsletter. It is now a glossy, full-color monthly that is read around the world.

Bluegrass Unlimited became the primary source of information about its genre, carrying record reviews, musical-instrument information, festival listings, features, artist news and letters. It knitted an entire community together.

In 1968, Kuykendall became one of the founders of the IBMA. Now headquartered in Nashville, this organization launched an annual awards show, a convention, a museum and the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.

He was instrumental in creating and managing the Indian Springs Festival. Launched in 1972, this Maryland get-together was a cornerstone bluegrass event for the next 14 years.

Using the pseudonym “Pete Roberts,” he composed and arranged a number of bluegrass classics. They include “Down Where the Still Waters Flow,” “Journey’s End,” “No Blind Ones There,” “Out on the Ocean,” “Rollin’ Stone” and “Remembrance of You.”

Among those who recorded his songs were Bill Clifton, Ralph Stanley, The Country Gentlemen, J.D. Crowe & The New South, Bill Yates, Charlie Waller, Larry Rice, James King and John Duffey.

“I Am Weary Let Me Rest” was recorded by several acts. The Cox Family’s version appeared on the acclaimed 2001 soundtrack CD O Brother Where Art Thou. Kuykendall’s songs are published by his Wynwood Music publishing firm.

In recent years, Pete Kuykendall became an avid collector of instruments. He owned rare banjos, mandolins and guitars as well as a treasure trove of recordings. He was regarded as a key historian of his genre when he was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 1996. He and his wife Kitsy Kuykendall remained active in bluegrass circles during the next two decades. They were friendly fixtures at East Coast bluegrass festivals as well as at the annual IBMA conventions
and awards shows.

Pete Kuykendall reportedly began having balance and walking problems. He went into an assisted-living center, but continued to receive friends and share his anecdotes right up to the end of his life.

Kitsy Kuykendall told Bluegrass Today that her husband passed away in his sleep at his nursing facility in Warrenton, VA on Wednesday night, Aug. 23.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

Former RCA Exec Dave Wheeler Passes

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Dave Wheeler with Dolly Parton. Photo: Dave Wheeler

Longtime RCA Records sales executive Dave Wheeler died Saturday, Aug. 19, at age 83.

He helped shape the careers of many artists including Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Alabama, Vince Gill, Ronnie Milsap, Martina McBride and Waylon Jennings. Known as a “Mr. Nice Guy,” he was one of the most widely loved executives in the annals of Music Row.

He initially joined RCA as a regional sales representative in West Virginia. He rose through the ranks in Cincinnati and Detroit before arriving in Music City.

By the mid-1980s, he was the label’s Director of Marketing in Nashville, overseeing the entire sales and marketing department. He eventually became a vice president at the company and was placed in charge of all of RCA Nashville’s promotion, artist development, product management and media as well as sales and marketing.

He remained with the record label for 35 years, his entire professional life.

Dave Wheeler graduated from Leadership Music in 1992. His family is distinctive in that it had three alumni of the prestigious program. Son Jimmy Wheeler of the Provident Label Group was a member of the 2007 class. Daughter Jill Wheeler of Red Mountain Entertainment was in the class of 2016.

Dave Wheeler retired from the music industry in 1992. He passed away at his home in Spring Hill, TN.

He is survived by his wife Kay, daughters Jill (of Birmingham, AL) and Beth (of Atlanta, GA) and by son Jimmy of Franklin, also by stepchildren, grandchildren and a great-grandson.

A celebration of life will be held at the Brentwood Country Club on Sunday, Sept. 24 from 5 p.m.-8 p.m.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be directed to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Nashville R&B, Gospel Mainstay Jesse Boyce Dies

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Jesse Boyce

Singer, songwriter, producer, instrumentalist, bandleader, businessman and entertainer Jesse Boyce has died at age 69.

For more than four decades, Boyce was a cornerstone figure of Music City’s r&b and gospel industries. He wrote, sang and/or produced some of the most prominent soul and disco hits ever made in Nashville.

An alumnus of Leadership Music, Boyce was associated with such top stars as The Temptations, Little Richard, Peabo Bryson, Shirley Caesar, Wilson Pickett and Teddy Pendergrass.

Born in 1948, Jesse Boyce was a native of North Carolina. As a high-school student in Greensboro, SC, he was classically trained on piano, organ, drums, guitar and bass. After earning a degree from American Baptist College in Nashville, he became a top session musician in Muscle Shoals, AL.
As a bass player in The FAME Gang of session players, he backed Candi Staton, Wilson Pickett, Bobbie Gentry, Clarence Carter and many other top stars. The FAME Gang (featuring Boyce) also made records under its own name, including 1969’s “Grits and Gravy” and “Soul Feud.”

During the 1960s, Jesse Boyce began a long association with guitarist/producer Moses Dillard (1947-1993), initially in the r&b group The Dynamic Showmen. Their next band, Moses Dillard & The TexTown Display, featured future star Peabo Bryson.

Boyce began writing and recording in Nashville in 1972. He formed the soul band Bottom & Co., which was signed to Motown Records in 1973. This made Bottom & Co. the first modern Nashville black act on a major label.

He wrote and sang “You’re My Life” (1974) and “Here for the Party” (1975), which made lower reaches of the soul charts for the group. Its Rock Bottom LP was issued in 1976.

Moses Dillard moved to Nashville that year. He and Boyce resumed their musical partnership. Working under the billing The Saturday Night Band, they scored a No. 2 disco hit with Boyce’s written and sung “Come On, Dance, Dance” in early 1978.

Continuing as a studio group, this time billed as The Constellation Orchestra, they hit the disco top-10 again that summer with “Perfect Love Affair.”

Meanwhile, Bill Brandon scored a 1978 top-30 hit on the r&b charts with “We Fell in Love While Dancing,” co-written and co-produced by Dillard and Boyce. In early 1979, Dillard and Boyce co-produced the big Lorraine Johnson disco hits “Feed the Flame” and “Learning to Dance All Over Again.”

This time billed as Dillard & Boyce, the team again gained its own spotlight by issuing their We’re In This Thing Together album on Mercury Records in 1980. Boyce sang lead and wrote or co-wrote all but one of its tunes.

With the disco ensemble dubbed Frisky, Boyce hit the dance charts again with “You Got Me Dancing in My Sleep” and “Burn Me Up” in 1980. He next joined the soul trio Spunk, with whom he made the r&B charts via “Get What You Want” in 1981. Jesse Boyce was the writer, lead singer and co-producer of this group, which reportedly sold four million records in the U.K.

In 1982, he hit No. 1 on the disco/dance charts via Linda Clifford’s version of “Let It Ride,” which he wrote and produced. Over the years, Jesse Boyce’s songs have also been recorded by The Temptations, Ben E. King, The Dells, The Commodores, The Impressions, O.C. Smith, Bloodstone, David Ruffin and The Chi-Lites, among others.

In addition, he became a sought-after session musician on Music Row. As a bass player, keyboardist and/or backup singer, Boyce recorded with Crystal Gayle, Dr. John, John Hiatt, Mickey Newbury, Shirley Caesar, Millie Jackson, Albertina Walker, Lou Rawls, Lonnie Mack, The Osmonds, The Mighty Clouds of Joy and more. He won a NARAS Super Picker Award honoring Nashville’s top session sidemen.

In 1983, Jesse Boyce was signed as a solo artist by Nashville’s Compleat Records. He issued “Bluer Than Blue” (1983) and “It’s Your Chance (To Break Dance)” (1984) for the label. This is also when he became the lead singer for the nostalgic golden-oldie bands The Marvels and The Sons of the Beach.

Around 1986, he began his 30-year tenure as the bass player for Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame legend Little Richard.

He resumed his education at Vanderbilt’s Divinity School and at Memphis Theological Seminary. He composed and recorded soundtrack music for a number of religious documentary films. Boyce eventually became the music minister at Gordon Memorial United Methodist Church in North Nashville.

He and Dillard co-produced the 1991 Warner Bros. Records gospel CD by New Faith. This group was composed of inmates at the Tennessee State Prison who were serving life sentences. Boyce sang backup on the record and co-wrote four of its tunes. This disc included guest appearances by Sam Moore of Sam & Dave fame, plus soul star Teddy Pendergrass.

He was selected for Leadership Music in 1992 and graduated from the program in 1993.

In more recent years, Jesse Boyce had established his Sovereign Music Group and founded the Midtown Music Academy for at-risk children in North Nashville.

He was diagnosed with advanced-stage prostate cancer in 2003.

Boyce released his final CD, The Messenger, in 2013 billed as Jesse Boyce & Vision.

When his cancer resumed and spread in 2016, he agreed to have his story told in the documentary film Intentional Healing. It premiered at the Nashville Film Festival earlier this year. It includes footage of him recording his song “Dance Again” with Phil Hughley (Gtar Phil) and UMG’s Black Violin.

Jesse Boyce died on Thursday, Aug. 17. He is survived by his wife Asieren; by children Jesse, Rosalind, Walden and Adrienne; by brother Tommy James and sister Dorothy Harris; by five grandchildren and by four great-grandchildren.

Donations are requested to Midtown Music Academy (P.O. Box 233, Madison, TN 37116) or to the Jesse Boyce Music Chair at the Reclamation Center Inc. (2334 Herman St. Nashville, TN 37208).

Rockabilly Pioneer Sonny Burgess Dies

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Sun Records artist Sonny Burgess, one of the last of the original rockabilly stylists, has died at age 88. Burgess passed away on Friday, Aug. 18, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He became a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2002.

He was born Albert Burgess Jr. in 1929 and was playing country music in his Newport, Arkansas hometown by the time he reached his early 20s. Elvis Presley came there to perform and promote his debut Sun single in 1955. Burgess was inspired and dramatically changed his style in imitation of Presley.

He also went to Memphis to audition for Presley’s label. Sonny Burgess’ Sun debut was the wildly energetic “We Wanna Boogie” / “Red Headed Woman” of 1956. Both sides of the disc are considered to be rockabilly classics.

He followed his debut with another strong rocker, 1957’s “Ain’t Got a Thing.” But this failed to duplicate the success of his first single. The third Burgess Sun single was a rockabilly version of “My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It.” Teen idol Ricky Nelson copied it, sold a million with it and drowned the Burgess original in 1958. Next, Burgess tried the rockabilly instrumentals “Itchy” and “Thunderbird.” These failed, too.

He and his band The Pacers toured with many of the top Sun acts, including Johnny Cash, Warren Smith and Jerry Lee Lewis. On the road with Roy Orbison, they did double duty by serving as his backing band.

Sonny Burgess & The Pacers were crazed, flamboyant stage personalities. Their antics included charging into audiences in a rocking frenzy, forming a human pyramid, rolling around on their backs while playing and dragging one another across stages.

They also did The Bug. This involved one band member picking up an imaginary bug and throwing it on another. The one “bugged” would flail around wildly, scratching and itching while continuing to play. He’d then toss the “bug” onto another, and the gesticulating would escalate. Then they’d involve the audience in the same game.

Other gymnastics included doing make-believe Indian dances. When Burgess would leap high into the air and let out a blood-curdling scream, it was a signal for the band to rock even harder.

At one point, Burgess dyed his hair red and costumed himself in red suede shoes, red socks, red slacks, a red shirt and a red tuxedo jacket. These matched his red Fender guitar.

But the lack of a big hit record demoralized The Pacers by the end of the 1950s. After serving a stint in Conway Twitty’s band, Sonny Burgess & The Pacers broke up. Burgess reverted to singing country and r&b music in the 1960s, but in 1972 he quit the music business.

He was a salesman for a fabric company for more than a decade. Then, in 1986, Burgess and a group of Sun session musicians performed at the Smithsonian Institution’s Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C. Billed as the Sun Rhythm Section, they also did a popular, two-week stint in one of the city’s nightclubs.

This led to further festival appearances, European tours and a Sun Rhythm Section CD. Then Burgess embarked on a series of solo comeback albums with Raw Deal (1986), Spellbound (1989), I’m Still Here (1990) and The Razorback Rock & Roll Tapes (1992). In 1992, Dave Alvin of The Blasters produced an especially acclaimed Sonny Burgess CD titled Tennessee Border.

In 1996, Gary Tallent of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band brought Burgess to Nashville to record the album Sonny Burgess Has Still Got It for Rounder Records. The CD’s cast included Billy Livsey, Roy Husky Jr., Scotty Moore and The Jordanaires. As he did “back in the day,” Burgess supplied his own lead-guitar licks.

His career revival continued with the CDs God’s Holy Light (1997), Tupelo Connection (2001), Back to Sun Records (2003) and Tear It Up (2006). He formed a new version of The Pacers and recorded a 2007 CD titled Gijon Stomp! Then Live at Sun Studios appeared in 2012.

In 2015, Sonny Burgess returned to Nashville as the headliner at the opening of a Sun Records exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame. On stage to celebrate “Flying Saucers Rock & Roll: The Cosmic Genius of Sam Phillips,” Burgess proved that his powerful growling voice and fiery guitar playing were undimmed by time.

Last month, Sonny Burgess fell at his home and was hospitalized. He died at Little Rock’s Baptist Health Medical Center, He is survived by a son, John Burgess. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

CMA’s Jo Walker-Meador Passes

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Jo Walker-Meador

By Robert K. Oermann

Country Music Hall of Fame member Jo Walker-Meador passed away on Tuesday evening (Aug. 15), following a stroke. She was 93.

Her grace and guidance as the 30-year executive director of the Country Music Association (CMA) served as a role model for a generation of women in the Nashville music business. Furthermore, she piloted the CMA from its struggling infancy to becoming a powerful force in America’s music industry.

There were fewer than 100 full-time country radio stations when she was hired by the CMA in 1958. By the time she retired, there were in excess of 2,000, more than any other music format. Under her leadership, the CMA built a Country Music Hall of Fame, launched the CMA Music Festival and inaugurated annual the CMA Awards telecast.

She was born Edith Josephine Denning in Orlinda, TN and initially had the career goal of becoming an English teacher and/or a women’s basketball coach. After college, she married WKDA radio executive Charles F. “Smokey” Walker in 1954.

She worked as a secretary in a gubernatorial political campaign, for the Nashville movie-theater chain Crescent Amusements and at a variety of other businesses before she took the job as office manager for the then-new CMA in late 1958.

The organization had been born out of the ashes of the Country Music Disc Jockey Association, founded in 1953. WSM radio’s Harry Stone was the first executive director, but the organization couldn’t afford to pay him.

Jo Walker-Meador was hired as the “girl Friday,” the executive assistant who did bookkeeping, typing and general office-running work. In 1959, she organized a CMA banquet, which eventually was spun off into a number of annual events presented by the organization.

Former CMA CEO Jo Walker Meador and CMA CEO Sarah Trahern at the 2016 Medallion Ceremony at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Sunday, Oct.17, 2016.

After Stone left in 1959, Minnie Pearl exhorted the CMA board to hire Jo as executive director because she was already essentially doing the job. Jo later ruefully recalled that she was hired because no man would work for so low a salary.

She officially assumed the paid executive-director job in 1962. Then came an aggressive campaign to convince radio stations that they should adopt the country format. Her diplomacy background in politics served her well as she navigated through a music business she initially knew little about.

The first Country Music Hall of Fame inductees were announced in 1961 – Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers and Fred Rose. This became the organization’s first annual ritual. In 1966, the CMA successfully marketed an all-star album of country music’s biggest hits to raise funds for a Hall of Fame building. It was sold via TV, and was one of the first telemarketing music successes. The Hall of Fame building opened on Music Row on April 1, 1967. That fall, Smokey Walker passed away, making his widow the primary breadwinner for her family. Also in 1967, the CMA began a second annual ritual, the presentation of the CMA Awards.

Jo Walker-Meador and leaders on the CMA board went to ad agencies and network television to convince them that their ceremony was worth becoming a TV special. In 1968, the CMA Awards became the first music honors presented on national television. It has been a ratings blockbuster ever since.

The annual Grand Ole Opry Birthday celebration began in 1952. It evolved into the Country Disc Jockey Convention, rebranded in 1969 as Country Radio Seminar. Organizers were concerned that country fans were showing up to this industry event to star gaze. In response, Jo Walker-Meador and her CMA founded Fan Fair in 1972.

Initially held at Municipal Auditorium, it attracted little attention that first year. To boost the crowd, Jo reached out to the Fort Campbell army base with free passes. Thanks to the soldiers who came, attendance at that first Fan Fair was roughly 5,000.

She married Nashville businessman Bob Meador in 1981. The CMA’s annual fan celebration moved to the Tennessee State Fairgrounds in 1982. By the time it moved to downtown Nashville in 2001, it was attracting 25,000 annually. Now known as the CMA Music Festival, it has more than 88,000 participants. It became a network TV special in 2004. Jo Walker-Meador attended every year, including in 2016.

There were only 200 members of the CMA when it was born. Under Jo’s leadership, membership swelled to more than 7,000 and the CMA became known as “the world’s most active trade association.” Although she retired from the CMA in 1991, Jo Walker-Meador continued to make appearances at Nashville music-industry events.

She was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1995 and was present for every successive Hall of Fame Medallion Ceremony for other inductees. Jo Walker-Meador was given the Cecil Scaife Visionary Award in 2013. Husband Bob Meador accompanied her when she was presented with a star in the Music City Walk of Fame in 2008. He died in early 2015.

Jo Walker-Meador is survived by her brother Pete Denning, daughter Michelle Walker, stepchildren Karen Meador and Rob Meador.

 

Hall Of Fame Great Glen Campbell Passes

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By Robert K. Oermann

Superstar Glen Campbell’s ordeal with Alzheimer’s disease has ended. He was 81.

The Country Music Hall of Fame member left a legacy of dazzling guitar playing, golden-throated singing, iconic television work and movie stardom. His enduring recorded performances include definitive interpretations of such classics as John Hartford’s “Gentle on My Mind,” Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Wichita Lineman,” Larry Weiss’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” and Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights.”

Glen Campbell revealed he had Alzheimer’s in 2011. He sang “Rhinestone Cowboy” at the February 2012 Grammy Award ceremony. He embarked on an international “Goodbye Tour,” with three of his children serving as band members. He appeared in Nashville at the CMA Music Festival in the summer of 2012.

The acclaimed 2014 documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me documented his final tour. Its soundtrack featured his last recorded song, the Oscar nominated “I’m Not Gonna Miss You.”

During his legendary career, Glen Campbell recorded more than 70 albums and placed more than 80 songs on either the pop, country or adult-contemporary charts. His lifetime record sales exceed 45 million units. He has 17 Grammy Award nominations and six wins.

Glen Travis Campbell was born the seventh son of the 12 children of a sharecropper near Delight, Arkansas on April 22, 1936. He dropped out of school at age 14. Proficient on guitar from an early age, he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1954 to join his uncle’s country band, Dick Bills & The Sandia Mountain Boys. The teenager also appeared on local radio and TV. He formed his own band, The Western Wranglers, in 1958.

With the aim of becoming a session musician, Campbell moved to Los Angeles in 1960. He became a member of the studio aggregation known as “The Wrecking Crew” and played on records by hundreds of established stars, including Frank Sinatra, Ricky Nelson, The Monkees, Jan & Dean, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Bobby Darin, Merle Haggard, The Mamas & Papas, Ray Charles, Simon & Garfunkle, The Fifth Dimension and The Righteous Brothers.

He was in the “house bands” of such TV shows as Star Route, Shindig! and Hollywood Jamboree during this period. He also toured as a member of the instrumental group The Champs (“Tequila”) and recorded as a member of The Hondells (“Little Honda”) and Sagittarius (“My World Fell Down”).

Glen Campbell signed with Capitol Records in 1962. “Kentucky Means Paradise” cracked the country top-20 in early 1963 (billed as The Green River Boys Featuring Glen Campbell). But most of his early singles for the label were not successful.

In 1964-65, he toured as a member of The Beach Boys, playing bass and singing Brian Wilson’s falsetto harmony parts. He also played on that group’s iconic 1966 LP Pet Sounds, as well as on such singles as “Help Me Rhonda” and “Dance, Dance, Dance.” Campbell also toured as a bass player with Ricky Nelson.

His own recording career began to heat up when he teamed up with producer/arranger Al DeLory. His remake of Jack Scott’s “Burning Bridges” returned him to the country top-20 in early 1967.

Later that year, “Gentle on My Mind” became a hit. It earned Campbell the ACM Single and Album of the Year trophies, and he was also the 1967 ACM Male Vocalist of the Year. In addition, “Gentle On My Mind” won Campbell his first country Grammy Awards. At the same ceremony, he won a pop Grammy for “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” which was actually a much bigger hit in the country field.

In 1968, Glen Campbell had his first No. 1 country hit, John D. Loudermilk’s “I Wanna Live.” He followed it with another big hit, Chris Gantry’s “Dreams of the Everyday Housewife.” He repeated his Male Vocalist ACM win, and Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell was named the ACM Album of the Year.

He became a bona fide pop star with the 1968 release of the haunting “Wichita Lineman,” his second country chart topper. At that year’s Grammy ceremony, his By the Time I Get to Phoenix LP was named the overall Album of the Year. In addition, he was named the 1968 CMA Entertainer and Male Vocalist of the Year. Simultaneous pop and country success continued in 1969 with Campbell’s yearning version of Jimmy Webb’s “Galveston.”

He had hosted a summer-replacement TV series in 1968. Beginning in 1969, he starred in his own, prime-time, weekly variety series, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, on CBS. The shows were characterized by impressive superstar duets. The host showcased his guitar talents, as well as his abilities on banjo, mandolin and bagpipes. Jerry Reed, John Hartford and Dom DeLuise were regulars. The series remained on the air until the summer of 1972. As a result of this exposure, Glen Campbell was named the ACM TV Personality of the Year in 1968 and 1971.

Film roles ensued. Campbell co-starred with John Wayne in the 1969 feature True Grit. He sang the film’s theme song, which was nominated for an Oscar. The 1970 film Norwood co-starred him with Joe Namath and Kim Darby. Other films that featured Campbell include Strange Homecoming (1974) with Robert Culp and Leif Garrett, Any Which Way You Can (1980) with Clint Eastwood, Uphill All the Way (1986) with Roy Clark and Mel Tillis and the animated Rock-A- Doodle (1991).

During the early 1970s, he continued to have consistent top-10 country hits — “Try a Little Kindness” (1969), “Honey Come Back” (1970), “Everything a Man Could Ever Need” (from Norwood, 1970) and “Manhattan Kansas” (1972), plus revivals of Conway Twitty’s “It’s Only Make Believe” (1970), The Everly Brothers’ “Let It Be Me” and “All I Have to Do Is Dream” (both with Bobbie Gentry, 1969-70), Pee Wee King’s “Bonaparte’s Retreat” (1974) and Roy Orbison’s “Dream Baby” (1971). Of them, “It’s Only Make Believe” was the sole single that became a pop top-10 hit as well. He also recorded duet LPs with fellow pop-country stars Anne Murray (1971) and Tennessee Ernie Ford (1975).

Glen Campbell roared back to the top of the pop hit parade with 1975’s “Rhinestone Cowboy,” also a No. 1 country hit. With sales reportedly in excess of two million, this became the biggest hit of his career. At the American Music Awards, it won both Pop and Country Single of the Year honors, and its album won the AMA Country Album award the following year. “Rhinestone Cowboy” was the ACM”s 1975 Single of the Year, as well. Also topping both pop and country charts was 1977’s “Southern Nights.”

Now at the peak of his popularity, he hosted the 1976, 1977 and 1978 American Music Awards telecasts. Between 1971 and 1983, he was annually the celebrity host of the Los Angeles Open PGA golf tournament. He began touring overseas and became an international celebrity, particularly in Great Britain.

He remained active on the country charts with “Don’t Pull Your Love/Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” (1976), “Sunflower” (1977), “Can You Fool” (1978), “I’m Gonna Love You” (1979), “Any Which Way You Can” (1980) and “I Love My Truck” (1981).

In 1982, he signed with Atlantic Records. Notable country singles for that company included “I Love How You Love Me” (1983), the Grammy nominated “Faithless Love” (1983), “A Lady Like You” (1984), “Letter to Home” (1985) and “It’s Just a Matter of Time” (1985).

During the 1980s, Campbell recorded duets with Rita Coolidge, Emmylou Harris, Mel Tillis, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Lee Greenwood and Tanya Tucker. The Tucker recordings were done when she and Campbell were romantically involved in a tempestuous relationship that made tabloid-newspaper headlines.

He returned to television with The Glen Campbell Music Show in 1982-83. The half-hour syndicated series had 24 episodes. In 1985, he was honored with an HBO TV special, The Silver Anniversary of the Rhinestone Cowboy. Johnny Cash, Anne Murray, Mel Tillis, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson joined him on it.

Also in 1985, airline flight attendant Denise Jackson approached Glen Campbell in the Atlanta airport. She told him her husband was a songwriter moving to Nashville and asked for advice from the star. Campbell put Alan Jackson in touch with his song-publishing company in Nashville and paid for the studio time that led to a recording contract.

Many others cite Campbell as influencing their careers, perhaps none more so than Keith Urban. Steve Martin was a writer on his TV show. Wade Hayes revived “Wichita Lineman” in 1997. The Band Perry won a Grammy last year for their revival of “Gentle on My Mind,” and Restless Heart’s current version of “Wichita Lineman” was recorded to salute Campbell’s influence. Being Campbell’s duet partner elevated Anne Murray’s profile early in her recording career.

Glen Campbell kicked off a late-1980s stint at MCA Records with another duet. He and Opry star Steve Wariner scored a big hit with 1987’s “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.” It earned the team a Grammy nomination.

Campbell’s solo hits continued with “Still Within the Sound of My Voice” (1987), “I Have You” (1988) and “She’s Gone, Gone, Gone” (1989). His 1986 inspirational album No More Night won Campbell a Dove Award from the GMA.

Accolades continued into the 1990s. He won his second Dove Award in 1992 for his performance of “Where Shadows Never Fall.” He published Rhinestone Cowboy as his autobiography in 1994. The book dealt candidly with substance abuse, women, recovery and his spiritual testimony. In 1998, he was presented with the ACM’s Pioneer Award.

He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005. As a member of L.A.’s studio all stars “The Wrecking Crew,” he was made a member of The Musicians Hall of Fame in 2007. His album A Glen Campbell Christmas won a Dove Award in 2000. Three of his recordings entered the Grammy Hall of Fame during this decade — “Wichita Lineman” (2000), “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” (2004) and “Gentle On My Mind” (2008).

Campbell returned to Capitol Records for his “comeback” album, 2008’s Meet Glen Campbell. The collection found him singing a highly eclectic repertoire, including songs by U2, Green Day, Jackson Browne, Foo Fighters and Tom Petty. His “farewell” album, Ghost on the Canvas, was issued in 2010.

He went public with his Alzheimer’s diagnosis the following year. He made his last TV appearance when he was presented with the 2012 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His final recorded song, “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” won the 2014 Best Country Song Grammy Award for Campbell and cowriter Julian Raymond.

Glen Campbell entered a Nashville memory-care facility that year. His long-term treatment continued throughout 2015. In early March 2016, his wife reported that he could no longer play the guitar and had lost most of his language skills.

Glen Campbell has had four families. His eldest daughter is Debby, the child of the star with his first wife, Diane Kirk. Debby Campbell sang backup in her father’s road band for 24 years and is the co-author of the 2014 memoir Glen Campbell: Life With My Father.

Second wife Billie Jean Nunley is the mother of daughter Kelli and sons Travis and Kane. Third wife Sarah Barg is the mother of son Dillon. In 2010, Dillon Campbell issued his debut pop EP, Save Yourself.

Campbell married Kim Woollen in 1982. She is the mother of sons Cal and Shannon and daughter Ashley, the three children who accompanied him in his final road band. Ashley Campbell co-wrote and recorded the 2015 Dot Records single “Remembering” to honor her father.

She also appears on his final album, Adios. Produced by his longtime sideman Carl Jackson, the record was released on June 9, in conjunction with the 2017 CMA Music Festival.

From Campbell’s official website:

It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and legendary singer and guitarist, Glen Travis Campbell, at the age of 81, following his long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Glen is survived by his wife, Kim Campbell of Nashville, TN; their three children, Cal, Shannon and Ashley; his children from previous marriages, Debby, Kelli, Travis, Kane, and Dillon; ten grandchildren, great- and great-great-grandchildren; sisters Barbara, Sandra, and Jane; and brothers John Wallace “Shorty” and Gerald.
In lieu of flowers, donations for Alzheimer’s research may be made to the Glen Campbell Memorial Fund at BrightFocus Foundation through the donation page at Careliving.org.
A personal statement from Kim Campbell will follow.
The family appreciates your prayers and respect for their privacy at this time.

LifeNotes: Music Industry Veteran Tammy Brown Passes

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Tammy Brown at the 2016 SOURCE Awards banquet in Nashville on Aug. 23, 2016. Photo: Moments By Moser Photography

Widely loved music-industry veteran Tammy Brown has passed away following a decade-long battle with cancer.

Brown worked for song publishers, record labels, producers and recording studios. She championed such artists as Little Big Town, Martina McBride, Keith Urban, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lee Ann Womack and Trisha Yearwood. In 2016, she won a SOURCE Award as a game-changing woman in the Nashville music business.

As a Music Row personality with over 30 years in the industry, Tammy Brown’s resume included stints at Sound Shop Studio, Tree Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Sony Music Nashville and ole Publishing. Throughout her career, she always campaigned for musical and songwriting excellence.

Tammy Brown grew up on a small farm in Oklahoma with no indoor plumbing. Her passion for music led her to move to Los Angeles In 1975. She became a production assistant, spending hours at studios attending to recording session details.

Brown moved to Nashville in 1987. She landed a job at Sound Shop studios, owned by Buddy Killen of Tree Publishing. After a year, she moved over to Tree, booking their in-house demo studios. She assisted more than 100 Tree writers, and organized the publishing firm’s No. 1 parties.

Tree Publishing eventually became Sony Music Publishing. There, Brown became producer Paul Worley’s executive assistant for six years. When he moved to Sony Records, so did she.

She began pitching songs to Worley and to the label. In recognition, she was promoted to Sony A&R supervisor. Her ear for talent led her to match songwriters with artists for writing sessions. She paired Marcus Hummon with Richard Marx, Billy Ray Cyrus with Jude Cole, Mac McAnally with Bob Bennett and Travis Tritt with Casey Beathard, plus Rivers Rutherford.

Getting successful songs to Montgomery Gentry, McBride, The Kinleys, Billy Gilman, Tritt, Marty Stuart, Buddy Jewell and Cyrus led her to becoming Sony’s Associate Director of A&R. During this era, Tammy Brown also became a key figure in Leadership Music’s annual Nashville Music Awards balloting procedure.

After she left Sony in 2004, Brown became the Creative Manager for ole Songs. While there, her efforts for the publisher resulted in six hit singles and dozens of album cuts.

She withdrew from the industry when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2008. Brown conquered leukemia in 2009. At that time, she was honored with a luncheon by the song-plugger collective Chicks With Hits. But by last year, her cancer had returned.

Tammy Brown went into hospice care and then died peacefully on Sunday, July 30.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.