Memorial Set For Singer / Philanthropist Saundra Steele

A celebration of the life of Nashville singer Saundra Steele will be held on Friday (July 29) at the Belle Meade Country Club.

Steele died on May 30 at age 72 following a battle with ovarian cancer. She was noted as a major-label recording artist, a touring backup vocalist, a prolific demo singer, a Nashville nightclub headliner, an avant-garde art patron, a philanthropist and a designer.

Born Saundra Joyce Rucker in 1949, she was a child and teen entertainer in West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and other mid-Atlantic states at fairs and festivals. She became a three-time “Star of Tomorrow” winner on Atlantic City’s Steel Pier and performed on Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour on CBS-TV.

She moved to Music City in 1967 at age 18. During the 1970s and 1980s, Steele recorded as a pop and/or country vocalist for the labels Royal American, Monument, United Artists and EMI. Her one prominent album was Saundra Steele, released on UA in 1980.

She married prominent Nashville businessman William Alexander Steele III in 1975. They became stewards of “Owl’s Hill,” a Williamson County modern-architecture mansion, grounds and nature sanctuary.

In the music business, Saundra Steele toured as a backup singer for George Jones, Johnny Rodriguez, Ronnie Milsap, Johnny Tillotson, Boots Randolph and the Stamps Quartet. She also became a Music Row demo singer.

She worked in the studio with Garth Fundis, Ralph Murphy, Allen Reynolds, Roger Cook, Bobby Wood and her longtime musical partner, steel guitarist Lloyd Green. As an entertainer, Steele developed local popularity as a performer in such Printers Alley nightspots as the Western Room and Carousel.

Coinciding with her residency at Owl’s Hill, she became a collector of avant-garde artwork. She designed decor for the Symphony Ball, co-chaired the inaugural Opera Gala at the War Memorial and worked on the Children’s Miracle Network Telethon.

Saundra Steele is survived by her daughters Britt Genevieve and Olivia Ruth Steele, by her granddaughter and by three siblings.

Her ashes will be interred alongside her husband in the Steele family plot at Mount Hope Cemetery in Franklin, as well as in the Rucker family plot in Webbville, Kentucky. In lieu of flowers, donations to Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary, 545 Beech Creek Road South, Brentwood, 37027; Cheekwood, 1200 Forrest Park Drive, Nashville, 37205; and, Alive Hospice, 1718 Patterson Street, Nashville, 37203 are welcome.

“All who loved her are invited to join and share a Saundra story!” is the invitation to Friday’s event. Billed as “a celebration of her whimsical and and extraordinary life,” it will be held on Friday, 3:00pm to 6:00pm at the Belle Meade Country Club.

Iconic Mastering Engineer Glenn Meadows Passes

Glenn Meadows

Music Row’s most renowned and respected mastering engineer passed away on Thursday (July 7).

Glenn Meadows died in Nashville at age 68, following a brief illness.

During his career, Meadows worked on thousands of hit records — from Randy Travis to Taylor Swift, from Steely Dan to Merle Haggard. He earned two Grammy Awards.

A Tennessee native, Meadows was an industrial engineering graduate of Georgia Tech who started his career at The Sound Pit in Atlanta.

Based in Music City since 1975, he ran Masterfonics beginning in 1989. In 2011, he joined Mayfield Mastering.

Over a 40+ year career, Meadows mastered the albums of Jimmy Buffett, Shania Twain, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Dan Fogelberg, England Dan & John Ford Coley, LeAnn Rimes, Reba McEntire and hundreds of others.

During the vinyl era, he was a lacquer cutting engineer who signed his work with Glenn, Glen, GAM or GM etched in the runout area of the disc.

In 2019, the Nashville chapter of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) honored Glenn Meadows with the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in Mastering Engineering. The honor took place at an awards ceremony held at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum.

Funeral arrangement have not been announced.

Beloved Producer/Engineer Bil VornDick Passes

Bil VornDick

Music Row veteran Bil VornDick died on Tuesday (July 5) at age 72, less than a week after he’d been diagnosed with cancer.

He was a producer/engineer who was renowned for his recording-studio skills, particularly in folk, bluegrass, Americana and acoustic-music circles. VornDick worked on albums that earned more than 40 Grammy nominations and nine wins.

His clients included Alison Krauss, Doc Watson and Charlie McCoy. He had served two terms as the chairman of the Nashville chapter of Audio Engineering Society (AES).

Born William Thomas VornDick, he was raised in northern Virginia. While still a student and playing guitar in rock bands there, he sold some songs to Cedarwood Publishing on Music Row. Chet Atkins urged him to move to Nashville and helped him enroll in Belmont University.

In 1979, he became an early graduate of Belmont’s music-business program. Country superstar Marty Robbins heard him working on demos for Loretta Lynn’s publishing company and hired him as his studio’s chief engineer.

VornDick subsequently became the chief engineer at Stargem Studio, the founder of The Music Shop and the owner of Music Row Audio and Mountainside Music Group Productions.

He became particularly associated with the “new acoustic music” genre that emerged in the 1980s. He worked with Béla Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Craig Duncan, Alison Brown, Mark O’Connor, Vassar Clements, Edgar Meyer and David Grier, among others.

Following his Grammy-winning work with Alison Krauss, he worked with a bluegrass who’s-who, including Peter Rowan, The Dillards, The Country Gentlemen, New Grass Revival, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, Del McCoury, Doyle Lawson, Claire Lynch, Rhonda Vincent, The Earls of Leicester, Dan Tyminski, Laurie Lewis, Larry Cordle, The New Coon Creek Girls and IIIrd Tyme Out.

He also had credits with mainstream Nashville country artists. VornDick worked on records by Lynn Anderson, Trace Adkins, Jo-El Sonnier, Janie Fricke, Marty Stuart, Gene Watson, Asleep at the Wheel, Jimmy C. Newman and Sweethearts of the Rodeo, in addition to Robbins.

Bil VornDick was an active participant in the Nashville music community. He did advisory and/or instructional work for MTSU, Belmont, Folk Alliance, the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), the Recording Academy, MerleFest, Telluride, South Plains College, AES, Kerrville Folk Festival, Vol State and more.

He campaigned to save RCA Studio A from demolition, promoted popularity charts for roots music and championed health insurance for music people.

In recent years, he became widely admired in the Americana field. That genre’s Jim Lauderdale, Maura O’Connell, T-Bone Burnett, Jesse Winchester, The Fairfield Four, John McEuen, Leon Redbone, Robert Earl Keen, Webb Wilder, Robin & Linda Williams, Hazel Dickens and Charlie Haden all worked with him.

In 1998, he produced the epic Clinch Mountain Country, a 36-song tribute that featured legendary Ralph Stanley dueting with Bob Dylan, Vince Gill, Dwight Yoakam, Patty Loveless, Porter Wagoner, Ricky Skaggs, Connie Smith, the Kentucky HeadHunters, Diamond Rio, Joe Diffie, George Jones, Vern Gosdin, John Anderson, Hal Ketchum, Gillian Welch, BR549, Junior Brown and more. It was named Rolling Stone’s Top Country Album of the Year, got nominated for a Grammy and earned two trophies from the IBMA.

Bil VornDick was cherished for his personality as well as his studio skills. He was invariably kind, wise, welcoming, gentle and generous.

Yesterday, social media was alive with praise from folks who’d known him or worked with him. Among the hundreds posting tributes were O’Connor, Andrea Zonn, Mike Bub, Garth Shaw, Alison Auerbach, Steve Marcantonio, Yarn, Sharon Corbitt, Wally Wilson, Wanda Vick, Marcy Marxer, Tim McFadden, Louisa Branscomb, Steve Betts, Michael Snow and Rodney Dillard.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

Memorial Set For Flora-Bama Legend Joe Gilchrist

Joe Gilchrist

The iconic Flora-Bama nightclub on the Gulf Coast will host a Celebration of Life on Sunday (June 26) to honor the legacy of its longtime owner, Joe Gilchrist.

The venue’s godfather passed away on May 25 at age 80. The Flora-Bama has long been a mecca for the Nashville songwriting community. Gilchrist founded the annual Frank Brown International Songwriting Festival at the venue, and it has endured for nearly 40 years.

Gilchrist and the Flora-Bama were the subjects of the documentary film Stories in Rhyme: The Songwriters of the Flora-Bama Lounge. The movie had its premiere at BMI on Music Row in 2019.

“There didn’t seem to be any separation between how Joe ran his business and how he lived his life,” says Mullet Wrapper newspaper editor Fran Thompson. “He was always about community service and being fair to everybody….What made Joe different from the beginning was not his willingness to lose money by paying musicians on slow nights. He was different because he encouraged them to play their own songs.”

Adds Stories in Rhyme director Lynn Raybren, “Joe built a legacy and culture around treating others with kindness and respect….His love of songwriters and music would earn him the title ‘Patron Saint of Songwriters.’”

Regulars at the Flora-Bama have included Jimmy Buffett, John Prine, Dean Dillon, Jimmy Hall, Gove, Larry Jon Wilson, Alan Rhody, Red Lane, Hank Cochran, Gatemouth Brown, Wet Willie and Billy Joe Shaver. Gilchrist often ended the evening by buying a last-call round of drinks for the house.

Kenny Chesney staged his Flora-Bama Jama national TV special there in 2014. It attracted more than 40,000 fans to the venue’s beach.

Joe Gilchrist bought the Flora-Bama from his childhood friends Bubba and Connie Tampary in 1978. Officially named The Flora-Bama Lounge & Package, it is located on the stretch of beach on the Gulf border between Alabama and Florida.

In the early days, he borrowed money to get his employees through the winter. The club’s Friday-afternoon Happy Hour crowd grew when Gilchrist made it a popular place for construction crews to cash payroll checks. He also ran shuttles for sailors to and from the area’s nearby Naval stations.

Ken Lambert became the Flora-Bama’s first musician. Darrell Roberts, Jimmy Lewis, Rock Killough and others soon followed. Killough invited his Music Row songwriting buddies to the club.

This led to the founding of the Frank Brown International Songwriting Festival in 1984. Gilchrist named it after his club’s doorman. A who’s-who of Nashville songwriting has performed there. Tanya Tucker, Jim McBride, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band members, John Rich, Midland and other contemporary figures have appeared in recent years.

Gilchrist and the Flora-Bama have long been noted for community involvement, hosting everything from weekly religious services to military-appreciation galas. Proceeds from the festival go to local music education.

Today, the Flora-Bama is surrounded by high-rise condominiums, but much like The Station Inn in Nashville, it continues to be an island of rootsy authenticity. The club is still noted for hundreds of bras hanging from the ceiling of one room, its tent for Sunday-morning services and its annual “Mullet Toss” on its beach. Gilchrist served on the board of the Perdido Key Chamber of Commerce for more than a decade.

The Joe Gilchrist Celebration of Life will take place on Sunday at the Flora-Bama tent stage from 2-6 p.m. The event will continue with music in the main room from 6-10 p.m. and with a full day of music in the main room on Monday, 2-10 p.m. As always at the legendary, laid-back Flora-Bama, the vibe will be informal.

Andy Haynes, the director of the Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival, reports that he is pursuing some kind of recognition in Nashville for the widely loved entrepreneur.

Country Radio Hall Of Famer ‘Eddie Edwards’ Drennan Passes Away

Country Radio Hall of Fame personality and programmer “Eddie Edwards” Drennan passed away on Sunday (June 19) at the age of 75.

A San Diego native, Drennan was introduced to radio through his father, who performed in bands on radio shows throughout the West Coast. His first radio job was in Barstow, California, which led him to career stops at XEPRS-AM in San Diego, WMC-AM in Memphis, WSIX in Nashville, KLAC-AM in Los Angeles, KAJA in San Antonio and KEBC in Oklahoma City.

Drennan spent 25 years as Program Director at WNOE in New Orleans. He exited the station in 2017 and had since been covering mornings at WUUU in Covington, Louisiana—a station that reports to the MusicRow CountryBreakout Radio Chart.

Drennan was named the ACM Personality of the Year in 1986 as well as the CMA Medium Market Personality of the Year in 1987. He was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in 2013.

No memorial arrangements have been announced at this time.

Music Row A&R Veteran Al Cooley Passes

Longtime Nashville music executive Al Cooley died on Thursday (June 9) at age 76.

He is perhaps best known for his tenure at Combine Music, the publishing home of such Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame members as Dennis Linde, Kris Kristofferson, John Scott Sherrill, Bob DiPiero, Larry Gatlin and Bob Morrison, among others.

Cooley was also an authority on the career of Elvis Presley and had an encyclopedic knowledge of popular-music history, particularly Nashville’s. He was one of Music Row’s great characters and an intense music enthusiast. These qualities made him successful.

“He was the classic picture of a song plugger,” recalls former Combine writer Woody Bomar. “When he believed in a song he was relentless until he got it from the writer’s room to the radio.”

Born Al Bianculli, he was raised in the Bronx and retained a strong New York accent throughout his Music Row career. He first came to Nashville as a music journalist. Cooley was the editor of Zoo World: The Music Megapaper. Published in 1972-75, the bi-weekly periodical was designed as a competitor to Rolling Stone. He profiled the “Nashville underground” in a 1973 edition of Zoo World. In 1975, he wrote liner notes for Billy Swan’s album Rock ’N’ Roll Moon.

His outgoing personality appealed to the industry leaders on Music Row. He was hired by Combine in 1976, and became its widely liked song plugger. He advanced at the publishing company throughout his decade there. The staff songwriters included Bomar, Swan, Thomas Cain, Tony Joe White, Pat McManus, Debbie Hupp, Patti Ryan, Mark Germino and Tim Krekel, as well as the Hall of Famers listed above. Cain became a BMI executive. Bomar now runs Green Hills Music.

Among Al Cooley’s many accomplishments was giving future star Kathy Mattea her first recording sessions by hiring her as a Combine demo singer. In 1981, he helped David Ross launch MusicRow magazine as the periodical’s first columnist. He remained at Combine until 1986, when it was sold to SBK Entertainment (the catalog now resides at EMI).

Cooley also had stints at the MTM Music Group and at MCA Music Publishing. In 1991, he became the A&R Director at Atlantic Nashville Records. The company succeeded with Tracy Lawrence, Neal McCoy, Confederate Railroad, Robin Lee and John Michael Montgomery. He became vice president at the label in 1994.

In 2004, Cooley was named Manager of Koch Nashville’s publishing division. Koch/Audium was associated with such artists as Robert Earl Keen, Dean Miller, Gene Watson, The Tractors, Daryle Singletary, Dwight Yoakam, David Lee Murphy and John Anderson.

Cooley retired, but continued to be involved in the music business as a repertoire consultant for Tracy Lawrence and other acts.

In recent years, Al Cooley had been battling cancer. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

‘Lucille’ Songwriter Hal Bynum Passes

Hal Bynum. Photo: Dennis Wile / Warner Bros. Records

Award-winning Nashville songwriter Hal Bynum died June 2 at age 87.

He is best-known as the co-writer of the Kenny Rogers mega-hit “Lucille,” with collaborator Roger Bowling (1944-1982). Bynum was also a spoken-word recording artist and performer.

Harold Lynn Bynum was born in West Texas in 1934 and attended Texas Tech in Lubbock. He served in the U.S. Navy and began writing country songs as a young man. His first recorded song was “I’m Hot to Trot,” recorded by Terry Fell in 1953. George Jones recorded Bynum’s “The Old, Old House” in 1963, and the songwriter moved to Nashville five years later. “The Old, Old House” subsequently became a bluegrass favorite recorded by Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Peter Rowan, Country Gazette, IIIrd Tyme Out and Marty Stuart.

Country superstar Jim Reeves recorded Bynum’s “Nobody’s Fool” shortly before he died in 1964, and the song became a posthumous top-10 success for Reeves in 1970. The songwriter’s other notable event in 1970 came when Ray Price recorded “You Can’t Take It With You.” This song was also recorded by Wynn Stewart, Johnny Bush, Clinton Gregory and Kenny Price.

Johnny Cash recorded Bynum’s “Papa Was a Good Man” the following year, and it became a top-20 hit. In 1973, Jeanne Pruett recorded “I’ve Been So Wrong For So Long,” and a year later Diahann Carroll introduced “Easy to Love,” which was covered by Tom Jones.

During his career, Bynum wrote more than 200 songs. They were recorded by artists such as Merle Haggard, Ernest Tubb, Jimmy Dickens, Curtis Potter, T.G. Sheppard, Dave & Sugar, Charlie Rich, Diana Trask, Cal Smith, John Anderson and Roy Clark.

His songwriting career struck gold with “Lucille.” The song turned Kenny Rogers into a pop and country superstar, won him a Grammy, sold a million, became a country standard and earned Bynum and Bowling the CMA Song of the Year award for 1977.

This success was followed by “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang,” co-written with Dave Kirby. It rose to the top of the charts in a duet by Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash in late 1978.

Bynum co-wrote 1987’s “As If I Didn’t Know” with Mel Tillis, and it was recorded by Suzy Bogguss, as well as Lee Greenwood. One of the songwriter’s most frequent collaborators was Bud Reneau, with whom he wrote “Chains.” It topped the charts for Patty Loveless in 1990.

In the late 1990s, Hal Bynum began a second career as a spoken-word recording artist. Jim Ed Norman produced Bynum’s philosophical If I Could Do Anything (1998) on Warner Bros. Records. Bynum followed that with two more albums on his own label, The Promise (2002) and An American Prayer (2004). The Promise was also the title of his 2002 autobiography.

Hal Bynum passed away peacefully after a prolonged battle with Alzheimer’s and a final stroke. He is survived by his wife of 29 years, Rebecca Jan Bynum; his sons, Scott Thomas Bynum of Farmington, New Mexico and Christopher David Bynum of Brooklyn, New York and by two grandchildren and two nieces.

The family will gather at his home in Nashville to celebrate his life at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Urantia Fellowship in his name.

Seals & Crofts Pop Hitmaker Jim Seals Passes

Jim Seals. Photo: Courtesy of Robert K. Oermann archive

Nashville pop star Jim Seals died on Monday (June 6) at age 80.

He was famed as half of the 1970s pop duo Seals & Crofts, who scored with such big hits as “Summer Breeze,” “Diamond Girl” and “Get Closer.” Seals sang lead in the act. He wrote the duo’s lyrics and co-wrote its melodies with partner Darrell “Dash” Crofts.

Both of them grew up in West Texas and began playing music together as teenagers. Jim Seals was born in 1941 into a highly musical family. His father was a musician in a western-swing band. Older cousin Johnny Duncan (1938-2006) became a 1970s country star.

Uncle Chuck Seals (1922-1997) co-wrote the country standard “Crazy Arms.” Younger brother Dan Seals (1948-2009) had pop hits as half of England Dan & John Ford Coley, then became a major solo country star of the 1980s. Another brother, Eddie Seals, performed music, comedy and impressions in the popular Printer’s Alley nightclub act Eddie & Joe. Older cousin Troy Seals has been elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Nephew Brady Seals gained fame in the country band Little Texas and has become a well-regarded solo artist.

At age 9, Jim Seals won the Texas State Fiddle Championship. By the time he was in junior high, he had mastered saxophone and guitar, as well. He made his disc debut in 1958 with a pair of instrumental singles.

The rock & roll group The Champs was on tour enjoying the chart-topping success of 1958’s “Tequila” when a dispute broke up the band. Seals and Crofts were recruited to become replacement members. When the tour ended, they moved to L.A. to continue performing and recording with The Champs.

Seals began to blossom as a songwriter. His “It’s Never Too Late” was recorded by Brenda Lee as the B-side of her chart-topping “You Can Depend on Me” smash of 1961. His songs were also recorded by The Knickerbockers, Gene Vincent, Rick Nelson, and Lenny Welch, as well as The Champs.

The band was an instrumental act that showcased Seals’ sax honking. But both he and Crofts wanted to sing, as did newer member Glen Campbell. They departed The Champs in 1965. By then, Jim Seals had recorded four more solo singles that went nowhere. After leaving the band, he took work as a session musician and played in several pop bands in L.A.

In the late 1960s, Seals and Crofts teamed up with a trio called The Day Sisters and formed a Vegas act called The Dawnbreakers. The group recorded for Dunhill Records, but the label never issued anything. The mother of the Day sisters was a key figure in the emerging Baha’i religious community in Southern California. Both Seals and Crofts were converted to this faith.

Crofts switched from playing drums to learning mandolin. He and Seals began writing and singing pop tunes, backed simply by guitar and mandolin.

Seals & Crofts debuted as a duo in 1969. They began to record their soft, folkie, exotic, acoustic sound on two small-label albums in 1970. They signed with Warner Bros. Records the following year.

Their songs’ lyrics, written by Seals, reflected their faith. The Baha’i religion, founded in Persia, espouses universal brotherhood and fosters complete equality of the sexes and all races. The sect’s peace-and-love beliefs and gentle mysticism were evident in such tracks as “Summer Breeze” and “Hummingbird,” which became career-launching hits in 1972-73. Seals sometimes even quoted verbatim from Baha’i scriptures in his lyrics.

“Diamond Girl” and “We May Never Pass This Way Again” became two more pop hits for Seals & Crofts in 1973. Like their predecessors, they became even bigger smashes on the A/C charts.

Seals & Crofts became a big-time touring attraction, assembling a large band, traveling in private jets and employing a huge entourage. The shows incorporated their tuneful hits, plus hoedown fiddling from Seals, humorous songs, romantic testimonials, jazz instrumental solos and spotlight moments for backup vocalists. After the encores ended and the applause faded away, the men would return to the stage for “firesides.” These were no-microphone chats about their faith with whoever stayed behind to listen. Seals & Crofts were never evangelists. The rap sessions merely shared the Baha’i message of love and tolerance.

The duo’s progress was derailed in 1974. Seals & Crofts wrote and recorded “Unborn Child” as an anti-abortion single that year. Fearing controversy, many radio stations refused to broadcast it. Momentum was regained the following year with “I’ll Play for You.” A Greatest Hits album was issued in 1975, and it sold two million copies.

The comeback was solidified with 1976’s “Get Closer.” The duo’s artsy sound was updated with more thump in the production and an injection of soul from a third vocalist, Carolyn Willis from the hit-making R&B trio Honey Cone. The result was the biggest hit of their career. The films One on One (1977) and Foolin’ Around (1980) featured Seals & Crofts soundtrack songs. The 1977-78 premiere season of TV’s The Paper Chase used their “First Years” as its theme song.

In 1977-78, Seals & Crofts continued to be mainstays on the A/C charts with the hits “Goodbye Old Buddies,” “My Fair Share” and “You’re the Love.” But interest began to fade, and the albums of 1979 and 1980 failed to sell. Warner Bros. dropped the duo, and the two parted ways.

Seals continued to write songs, but moved to Costa Rica to operate a coffee plantation. Dash Crofts moved to Nashville and embarked on a solo career. The duo appeared at Baha’i gatherings and reunited for a tour in 1991-92.

Jim Seals had been living in Nashville on and off for several years before he officially relocated in 2004. A second Seals & Crofts reunion resulted in the 2004 album Traces. Jim and younger brother Dan Seals began to co-write songs, record and perform together in Music City. Dan was also a Baha’i. His cancer diagnosis and subsequent death in 2009 ended the brothers’ partnership.

“Summer Breeze” was revived by The Isley Brothers. The Voltage Brothers brought back “Get Closer.” “We May Never Pass This Way Again” was a high-school graduation favorite for many years. All of the Seals & Crofts hits became oldie airplay evergreens.

A stroke in 2017 brought Jim Seals’ performing days to a close. No cause of death was given at the time of his passing on Monday. He is survived by his wife Ruby Jean and by children Joshua, Juliette and Sutherland.

Alabama’s Randy Owen Mourning Loss Of Mother, Martha Owen

Pictured (L-R, back row): Rachel Carroll, Randy Owen, Reba Patterson; (L-R, front row): Martha Owen, Yeuell Owen

Randy Owen, lead vocalist of the iconic Alabama band, is mourning the loss of his mother Martha Alice Teague Owen, who passed away on Thursday (June 2). She was 90.

Martha and her husband Gladstone Yeuell Owen, who passed in 1980, introduced their son Randy and daughters Reba Patterson and Rachel Carroll to music. The family formed The Singing Owen Family when the siblings were children. The Gospel group performed in churches and at events in Alabama and the south during the ’60s and ’70s.

Randy would go on to form Alabama, one of the most iconic bands in country music. The group celebrated 80 million albums, charted 43 No. 1 singles, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Martha died surrounded by family in Fort Payne, Alabama following a short illness. Members of the Owen family are asking for privacy during this time.

Martha’s visitation will be held on Sunday (June 5) at 4 – 8 p.m. at the Rainsville Community Church in Rainsville, Alabama. Her funeral service will take place on Monday (June 6) with the timing to be determined.

Alabama is currently on a 30-city tour but is rescheduling this weekend’s concerts due to Martha’s passing. June 3 in Roanoke, Virginia will now take place on Dec. 9; and June 4 in Fayetteville, North Carolina will take place on Dec. 11. All prior ticket purchases will be honored at the new dates.

Nashville Soul Great Deborah McCrary Passes

Deborah McCrary

Deborah McCrary of the acclaimed soul/gospel/Americana group The McCrary Sisters, has passed away at age 67.

She and her three sisters — Ann, Regina and Alfreda — rose to become the most important Black female group in Nashville music history. Deborah McCrary was the low-harmony voice in the quartet and a beatific stage presence.

The McCrary Sisters have released five albums, serve in the “house band” at the annual Americana Awards ceremonies, are first-call session vocalists and have backed a who’s-who of popular music, including Elvis Presley, Stevie Wonder and Isaac Hayes.

The McCrarys are Nashville natives, the daughters of The Rev. Sam McCrary (1913-1991). He was a founder of the legendary and highly influential gospel quartet The Fairfield Four. Deborah and her sisters were steeped in that music from childhood.

As teenagers in the 1960s and 1970s, the sisters sang in Nashville’s BC&M Mass Choir. Deborah McCrary Person became a nurse and worked as such for most of her life. Younger sister Regina sang backup for Bob Dylan in 1979-85, while older sister Ann became prominent as a studio backup vocalist on numerous recording sessions for Christian-music stars. In 1988, Ann McCrary issued her solo CD What Is This?

The sensational sibling-harmony singing of the four sisters was first showcased on disc with the 2010 album Our Journey. Deborah sang lead on the record’s traditional tune “Dig A Little Deeper.” The McCrary collections All the Way and Let’s Go followed in 2013 and 2015. The sisters published their book Cooking With Love in 2015.

Meanwhile, a host of music greats sought them out as backing vocalists. The McCrarys have recorded with Sheryl Crow, Mike Farris, Carrie Underwood, Margo Price, Keb’ Mo’, Miranda Lambert, Mary Gauthier, Buddy Guy, Yelawolf, Allison Russell and Gary Nicholson.

On stage and/or recordings, they have also backed such stars as Delbert McClinton, The Black Keys, Martina McBride, Eric Church, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Jonny Lang, Robert Randolph, The Winans, Donnie McClurkin, Rosanne Cash, Hank Williams Jr., Dr. John, Widespread Panic, Maren Morris, Lee Ann Womack, Ray Stevens, Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Steve Earle and Gregg Allman, among dozens of others.

They’ve been featured on television specials aired by the networks PBS, ABC, BET and CMT. They’ve entertained at numerous music festivals both in the U.S. and abroad. They’ve sung everywhere from The Country Music Hall of Fame to Saturday Night Live, from the Grand Ole Opry to Madison Square Garden, from The White House to the Ryman Auditorium.

In 2017, they resurfaced on their own with a live album. Deborah co-wrote that record’s track “Let It Go.” Rounder Records signed the group and issued A Very McCrary Christmas in 2019.

Deborah McCrary Person had experienced some strokes in recent years. She died on Wednesday, June 1.

A visitation will be held on Friday, June 10 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Highland Hills Funeral Home (2422 Brick Church Pike, Nashville). A service will take place on Saturday, June 11 at 12 p.m. at St. Mark’s Baptist Church (3903 Milford Rd., Nashville), following another presentation at St. Mark’s at 11.