The life of Canadian country superstar Stompin’ Tom Connors was celebrated at a memorial service last week in Peterborough, Ontario.
On Wednesday, March 13, politicians, musicians and fans gathered to deliver eulogies and sing the songs of the singer-songwriter who was noted for his uncompromising style, iconoclastic beliefs and sturdy individualism. His casket was covered with the Canada’s maple-leaf flag and topped by his trademark black Stetson hat.
Connors was fiercely proud to be Canadian. He wrote story songs with themes about his homeland and decried fellow artists who aimed for stardom in the U.S.
Raised in poverty in New Brunswick, he hitchhiked across Canada at age 15. He broke into show business on the radio in the mining city of Timmins, Ontario, later the hometown of Shania Twain. He acquired his nickname while performing in Peterborough due to his habit of stamping his boot heel so forcefully that he damaged stage floors.
His best-known songs included “Bud the Spud,” “Sudbury Saturday Night,” “The Black Donnellys,” “Up Canada Way” and “The Martin Harwell Story.” His “The Hockey Song” of 1973 was played at all NHL games for many years.
In the 1970s, he had a national TV show titled Stompin’ Tom’s Canada on the CBC network. He formed his own record labels to promote not only his own works but those of other Canadian artists.
In protest of Canada’s broadcasters promoting non-Canadian artists, Connors quit recording in 1978. He resumed his career 10 years later.
Named Top Male Country Artist at the Juno Awards in 1971-75 and an Album of the Year winner in 1974, he returned all six of his trophies, stating that they should be given to “border jumpers.” He later told the CBC to “shove it” following a dispute about starring in a national TV special. In 1993, he declined induction into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.
In 1996, he published Stompin’ Tom: Before the Fame as his best-selling autobiography. In 2002, he was presented with honorary doctorate degrees by two universities. In 2009, he was pictured on a Canadian postage stamp and given a SOCAN lifetime achievement award.
Stompin’ Tom Connors was reportedly a heavy drinker who smoked more than 100 cigarettes a day. He died at age 77 on March 6 of renal failure after stubbornly refusing medical treatment. He planned his own memorial service. On the day of his death he issued a message to his fellow Canadians to “keep the Maple Leaf flying high.”
He is survived by his wife Lena, four children and several grandchildren.

Photo Credit: Matt McClain/The Washington Post

Dobro master Mike Auldridge, famed for his work in The Seldom Scene and Chesapeake, has died at age 73.

A role model for such Nashville resophonic guitarists as Rob Ickes and Jerry Douglas, Auldridge passed away near his home in Maryland on Saturday, Dec. 29, following a long battle with cancer. The instrumentalist was a key participant on the Grammy Award winning 1994 album The Dobro Sessions, which was co-produced by Douglas.

Noted for his poetic, fluid touch on the Dobro, Auldridge was a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow. The ceremony, staged in October, marked his final performance.

His band, The Seldom Scene, brought a modern tone to bluegrass music and incorporated the songs of Bob Dylan, John Prine and other contemporary composers into the style. He also released a series of acclaimed solo albums.

Mike Auldridge can be heard as a sideman on records by Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Linda Ronstadt and Lyle Lovett. But he never pursued a Nashville career as a studio instrumentalist.

His final album will be released next year. It will be a trio collection with his admirers Douglas and Ickes.

Willie Ackerman on the set of Hee Haw. He was on the show for 25 years.

Willie Ackerman, a longtime drummer on the Grand Ole Opry, on Hee Haw and on Music Row recording sessions has died at age 73.

Ackerman passed away at Skyline Medical Center last Thursday, Dec. 13. Born William Paul Ackerman, he was a Nashville native who became a professional musician at age 17.

He rose to prominence during the Nashville Sound era of the 1950s and 1960s and can be heard on records by Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Charley Pride, Tom T. Hall, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Chet Atkins, Ray Price, Faron Young, Roger Miller, Johnny Paycheck, Bobby Bare, Jim Reeves and hundreds of others.

Among the hits he set the tempo for were “El Paso” by Marty Robbins, “The Grand Tour” by George Jones, “Amos Moses” by Jerry Reed, “Wings of a Dove” by Ferlin Husky, “Black Rose” by Waylon Jennings, “Walk on By” by Leroy Van Dyke, “Ahab the Arab” by Ray Stevens and “Girl on the Billboard” by Del Reeves. He was extremely active as a musician between 1957 and 1990.

Willie Ackerman was a member of the Nashville local of the American Federation of Musicians for 50 years and served on the union’s board of directors. He was also a Deputy Sheriff of Davidson County.

He is survived by his wife Jeannie, his musician son Trey, daughters Kelly Ackerman and Angela Pardaen, seven grandchildren, brother John Robert and sisters Helen Demonbreun, Sammie Guthrie and Frankie Corinne Boyle.

His memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. this morning [Monday, Dec. 17] at Marshall-Donnelly-Combs Funeral Home, followed by burial at Spring Hill Cemetery in Madison. Memorials can be made in his honor to the Opry Trust Fund.

Willie Ackerman and Jim Glazer, circa 1958.