Veteran music journalist and colorful Nashville media figure Gerry Wood died in Florida last Saturday (May 3) at age 87.

Wood was the manager of the Billboard office in Music City. He was also a popular local television personality in the 1980s.

Born Gerald E. Wood in Lewiston, Maine, he began his entertainment career in radio. He was a news and sports reporter at WSON in Henderson, Kentucky, then polished those skills while also becoming a DJ at WVJS in Owensboro, Kentucky. He graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1960 and went on to earn a masters degree from Vanderbilt University in 1965.

Gerry Wood continued to combine his news acumen and on-air personality skills at WAKY in Louisville and WKDA in Nashville (1964-66). He then shifted to working on Music Row. He worked in public relations at Vanderbilt (1966-69) and ASCAP (1969-75). Wood began his first stint at Billboard in 1975. He was named the publication’s editor-in-chief in New York in 1980.

He moved back to Music City to become editor at Nashville magazine (1983-84) and Nashville correspondent for People magazine (1984). Gerry Wood returned to Billboard to become the general manager of the publication’s Nashville bureau in 1986.

On local television, he became known as “The Gamboling Gourmet” on WTVF-TV. He was also a regular reviewer on the TNN cable channel in the mid 1980s.

Boundlessly enthusiastic, he was omnipresent at music-biz parties and junkets. He was also a travel enthusiast.

His then-wife Ellen Wood became a publicist in the BMI Nashville office. They worked with an emerging group of media folks, including Ed Morris, Debbie Holley, Chuck & Sandy Neese, Jimmy Buffett and Kip Kirby. Wood won a Journalistic Achievement Award from SESAC in 1981.

Gerry Wood wrote a number of books. Ain’t God Good (1975) and Let the Hammer Down (1978) were collaborations with country comedian Jerry Clower. Other titles included The Grand Ole Opry Presents the Year in Country Music (1997) and Tales From Country Music (2003).

Gerry Wood wrote for Country Weekly, as well as many other publications as a freelance journalist. He was a member of the CMA, the GMA, NSAI and the Recording Academy. He served on the board of the Nashville Entertainment Association.

Following his divorce, he moved to Florida and wrote books as well as articles for local publications on the Gulf Coast. He passed away in Inverness, Florida. No funeral arrangements have been announced.

David Briggs. Photo: Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Keyboardist David Briggs, who performed with a who’s-who of rock and country greats, has died at age 82.

A 60-year veteran of Music Row, Briggs was also a song publisher, studio owner, songwriter and arranger. He was a member of the Musicians Hall of Fame as well as the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

His career began in Florence, Alabama in the 1950s as a teenager who performed on local television and won boogie-woogie talent contests. Across the river was Muscle Shoals, which began to emerge as a music capital in the early 1960s. Songwriter Earl “Peanutt” Montgomery invited Briggs to recording sessions at FAME Studio, and the piano player soon became a key member of the original Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. He and Muscle Shoals bass player Norbert Putnam became lifelong friends and collaborators.

Briggs played on all of the early Muscle Shoals hits, including those of Arthur Alexander, Joe Tex, Jimmy Hughes and Al Green. He began to write songs during this era. Brenda Lee, Percy Sledge and Dan Penn were among those who recorded his early songwriting efforts.

Recording sessions in Alabama weren’t constant. He and many of the other Muscle Shoals players relocated to Nashville, where session musicians worked around the clock. David Briggs arrived in Music City in 1965. During his first year in Nashville, he played on 140 recording sessions. This soon accelerated into 400+ sessions a year.

His versatility was one reason for his success. Those sessions were for such diverse artists as Johnny Cash, Bob Seger, Kenny Rogers, Connie Smith, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dean Martin, Willie Nelson, Joan Baez, Loretta Lynn, The Pointer Sisters, Ronnie Milsap, B.B. King, Waylon Jennings, Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, Hank Williams Jr., Linda Ronstadt, Roy Orbison, B.J. Thomas, Tony Joe White, Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, The Monkees, Reba McEntire, John Prine, Dobie Gray, K.T. Oslin, Don McLean, Donovan, Billy Bob Thornton, Kenny Chesney, Nancy Sinatra, Charley Pride, The Everly Brothers, Eddie Rabbitt, Carl Perkins, Barbara Mandrell, Alice Cooper, George Harrison, Peter, Paul & Mary and many other music legends. He had more than 10,000 music credits on his resume.

During his journey to prominence as an “A Team” session musician, David Briggs also recorded solo albums and performed live, including as a member of the Nashville session supergroup Area Code 615 in 1969-71. In 1974, he was a member of The James Gang. The musician first backed Elvis Presley in 1966. Many recording sessions later, he performed in Presley’s TCB Band throughout 1976.

Briggs was also the music director for network and cable television specials. In addition to playing on records, he was a noted string arranger.

He branched out into other areas of the music business. In the late 1960s, Briggs partnered with Norbert Putnam to open Quadrafonic Sound. It became the premier studio in Nashville for visiting pop and rock musicians, including Neil Young, Dan Fogelberg and Jimmy Buffett. Briggs went on to create his own House of David recording studio nearby.

Also with Putnam, Briggs founded the publishing company Danor Music. The firm signed such Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame members as Troy Seals and Will Jennings.

In 1999, David Briggs was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. 10 years later, he and his fellow Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section members entered the Musicians Hall of Fame, which is located in downtown Nashville.

Younger brother John Briggs became an executive at ASCAP and U.S. Bank.

David Briggs died on Tuesday (April 22). He is survived by two sons, Darren and Gabriel. Funeral arrangements have not been posted.

Larry Bastian

Longtime Major Bob Publishing songwriter Larry Bastian died on Sunday (April 6) at age 90.

Bastian co-wrote such Garth Brooks hits as “Unanswered Prayers,” “Rodeo” and “The Old Man’s Back in Town” in 1991-92. The superstar recorded many other Bastian songs, as did a who’s-who of country music.

Larry Bastian was born and raised in California’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley, and he lived throughout his life in the Springville/Porterville area. He was from a farming family. Following high school, he spent his early years farming and cowboying. Bastian then worked for 15 years as a biologist for the Department of Agriculture for Kern and Tulare Counties.

But he always made music. Touring country artists who heard his songs, encouraged him to send his music to Nashville. In the 1970s, Larry Bastian decided to devote himself to songwriting.

His first notable success was when his “This Ain’t Tennessee and He Ain’t You” was recorded by Janie Fricke in 1980. Although never a hit, it became the songwriter’s most recorded song, with a version by Tom Jones, among several other notables. In 1981, Sammi Smith’s recording of “Sometimes I Cry When I’m Alone” became the songwriter’s first top-40 hit. Shortly afterward, David Frizzell & Merle Haggard recorded “Lefty,” Bastian’s tribute to Lefty Frizzell, who was David’s brother and Merle’s idol.

Bastian songs also charted for Ray Price, Wyley McPherson and The Kendalls in the 1980s. In 1988, Conway Twitty had a top-10 smash with “Saturday Night Special.” Garth Brooks began his run of Bastian-penned successes in 1991. Sammy Kershaw had a top-20 hit with “Yard Sale” in 1992 and repeated the feat with “If You’re Gonna Walk, I’m Gonna Crawl” in 1997. Bastian’s last notable chart success was in 2004 with Craig Morgan’s version of “Look at Us.”

During his songwriting career, Larry Bastian’s works were also recorded by George Jones, Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, Vern Gosdin, Eddy Arnold, Buck Owens, Tammy Wynette, Tracy Byrd, Lacy J. Dalton, Moe Bandy, Rhett Akins, The Whites, Neal McCoy, Con Hunley and many others.

His songs also found a home in bluegrass music.

Larry Bastian passed away in Porterville, California. No funeral arrangements have been announced.