Death of Soundgarden Singer Chris Cornell Ruled a Suicide

The death of rock musician Chris Cornell, whose distinctive voice led the bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, has been ruled a suicide.

Medical authorities in Detroit say Cornell, 52, hung himself in his hotel room.

Cornell was found dead in his hotel room, hours after Soundgarden played Detroit's Fox Theater as part of a North American tour that had been scheduled to continue Friday in Columbus, Ohio.

Cornell's publicist said "His wife, Vicky, and family were shocked to learn of his sudden and unexpected passing, and they will be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause."

Soundgarden was a major force in the 1990s musical movement known as grunge along with groups such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Its 1991 album "Batmotorfinger" spawned popular singles such as "Outshined," and "Jesus Christ Pose." In 1994, the band released its breakthrough Grammy nominated album, "Superunknown," which debuted at number one in the U.S. It included songs such as "Spoonman," "Fell on Black Days," and "Black Hole Sun."

In 1991, Cornell recorded an album with Temple of the Dog, a supergroup that included members of both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.

During a period in which Soundgarden had broken up, Cornell partnered with former members of another band, Rage Against the Machine, to form the successful group Audioslave.

Soundgarden reunited in 2010 and launched its current tour in April. Cornell throughout his career released several solo albums as well.

He and his wife, Vicky, also launched a foundation aimed at helping kids facing homelessness, poverty, abuse and neglect.

Cornell's contemporaries reacted to his death with shock and surprise on Twitter early Thursday.

GAVIN ROSSDALE: I AM SO SADDENED BY CHRIS CORNELL PASSING. TOTAL SHOCK. GREAT MAN. GREAT BAND. GREAT LOSS. LOVE TO EVERYONE IN HIS WORLD. XXX

Dave Navarro, best known as a guitarist for Jane's Addiction, said he was "stunned" by the news.

And Jimmy Page, guitarist for the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin, said of Cornell: "Incredibly talented. Incredibly young. Incredibly missed."

(Photo by gdcgraphics: Chris Cornell at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.)

Fans Gather at Prince’s Home One Year After His Death

Fans are marking the anniversary of U.S. musician Prince’s sudden death from an accidental drug overdose with visits to his Paisley Park home, which has been turned into a museum.

The museum is hosting a four-day event that includes concert performances by Prince’s former band-mates and panel discussions.

It was a year ago Friday that the pop legend was found dead at Paisley Park, a recording complex outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Prince lived and created his music.

Fans come to grieve

Fans who came to the complex Friday included Mary Adams, who drove six hours from Kansas City, Missouri, with her 10-year-old daughter.

“I needed to come here. This is where it began. I needed to pay homage to the star,” she said.

Adams said Prince had a profound impact on her life.

“Prince is the person that helped me decide that is was OK to be me, because that’s who he was. And he did it his way, his music, his style,” she added.

Minneapolis landmarks in purple

Fans are also holding a street party Saturday outside First Avenue, the club Prince made famous in Purple Rain, the title track of his breakthrough 1984 album and movie.

Landmarks around Minneapolis are being lighted in purple for two nights in tribute to Prince, while the Minnesota History Center is holding a special exhibit of Prince memorabilia.

The anniversary was supposed to be celebrated by the release of new Prince music. However, a Minnesota district court this week issued a temporary injunction barring the release of the six-song EP Deliverance after Prince’s estate filed a lawsuit claiming the works were stolen by his former sound engineer.

Prince’s commercial legacy continues to be surrounded in controversy. The pop star died without a will or children, and dozens of people came forward after his death, claiming they were heirs.

Musical legacy

Prince died at 57 from an accidental overdose of powerful painkillers he was secretly using to ease the pain of hip surgery.

Prince was 19 when he released his first album, For You, in 1978. In the decades that followed, the multi-talented musician released 1999, Little Red Corvette and Purple Rain.

He sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, won seven Grammys and picked up an Oscar for Best Original Song score for Purple Rain. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Rhonda Soso said Friday that she came from California to Paisley Park “just to be a part of the purple family, the purple army, just be a part of just his spirit, just his energy.”

“It’s just still so difficult accepting that he’s no longer here,” she added.

(Photo courtesy of Bobak Ha'Eri.)

British Rock Icon David Bowie Dies at 69

British rock music legend David Bowie has died.

On Friday, the iconic musician turned 69 and released Blackstar, his 25th album. Inventive to the end, Bowie mixed rock and jazz on the album, which critics hailed as his best work in years.

His Facebook and Twitter accounts say he died peacefully Sunday "surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer."

​Bowie was known for his gender-bending dress and for his refusal to be pigeon-holed in any one musical genre, experimenting with glam rock, hard rock, dance, pop, soul and punk.

He shot to fame with 1969's Space Oddity, the lyrics of which summed up the loneliness of the Cold War space race and coincided with the Apollo landing on the moon: "Ground Control to Major Tom. Take your protein pills and put your helmet on ... For here am I sitting in my tin can. Far above the world. Planet Earth is blue. And there's nothing I can do."

​Ziggy Stardust

Three years later, he released The Rise of Ziggy Stardust and Spiders from Mars, which introduced one of music's most famous personas: the red-headed, androgynous, eyeliner-wearing Stardust, who would become an enduring part of Bowie's legacy.

He was born David Jones in south London two years after the end of World War Two. But, to avoid confusion with the Monkees' Davy Jones, he later changed his name to David Bowie, according to Rolling Stone.

Bowie's Ziggy Stardust gave way to the stuttering rock sound of Changes, to the disco soul of Young Americans, co-written with John Lennon, to a droning collaboration with Brian Eno in Berlin that produced Heroes.

​​Some of his biggest successes occurred in the early 1980s, with the Let's Dance, Under Pressure, which he recorded with Queen, and a massive American tour.

'High points of one's life'

"My entire career, I've only really worked with the same subject matter. The trousers may change, but the actual words and subjects I've always chosen to write with are things to do with isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety — all of the high points of one's life," he told The Associated Press in a 2002 interview.

Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. He also co-wrote the musical Lazarus, which is finishing its run on Broadway this month.

He kept a low profile in recent years after reportedly suffering a heart attack in the 2004. However, he was to be honored with a concert at Carnegie Hall in March.

Bowie is survived by his wife, the model Iman, and two children.

Blues Legend B.B. King Dead at 89

by Susan Logue, Eric Felten

One of the great masters of blues guitar is dead.  B.B. King died late Thursday at the age of 89.  During a career that spanned nearly 70 years (his first recording was in 1949), the "King of Blues" influenced generations of musicians. 

To his legion of fans around the world, the sustained, single-note guitar syle of B.B. King is unmistakable.  He was without a doubt one of America's best-known and best-loved blues musicians.  And he never seemed to lose the thrill, through a career in which he spent most of each year on the road, performing for audiences around the world.

"I've always felt that to be an entertainer, you've got to entertain.  So I've tried to pull all my energies together if I'm singing, to put it all right there.  I'm trying to remember that the people who come to see me are fans who are expecting the best that I have,  so I never go onstage slack (unprepared)," King said.

Lucille

Wherever B.B. King traveled, one of his signature black Gibson guitars accompanied him. He named each one of them "Lucille."  He told fans he first christened his instrument just after a performance at a club in Arkansas, when two men had a fight and knocked over a kerosene heater, which started a fire.

"And everybody started to run for the front door, including B.B. King.  When I got on the outside, I realized I left my guitar," he recalled.  "And , in '49 believe me keeping a good guitar was a hard job.  People would borrow them without your permission.  I went back for my guitar, and the building was burning rapidly, and it started to collapse around me.

"So I almost lost my life trying to save my guitar," he added.  "The next morning we found out these two men were fighting about a lady that worked in the nightclub.  I never did meet her, but I learned her name was Lucille.  I named my guitar Lucille to remind me never to do a thing like that again."

How BB got his name

The famous blues musician was born Riley B. King on September 16, 1925.  The name B.B. came later, an abbreviation of "Blues Boy," which he used while working in Memphis as a disc jockey.  Before that, he worked on the Mississippi farm where he was born, picking cotton and driving a tractor. As a boy, B.B. King sang with amateur gospel groups.  But by the age of 16, he was singing and playing guitar on street corners. He found that singing the blues was more profitable than singing gospel.

"As I played, people would come by and generally request tunes.  And the people that would request gospel songs, would always praise me highly.  They would say, 'Great, son.  That is fantastic.  Keep it up, you'll be great one day.'  But they never tipped.  But usually people that would ask me to play a blues song would always tip me and maybe (buy me) a beer from time to time.  So you can see now, starting out to be a gospel singer, I decided to be a blues singer," King said.

Hits

B.B. King made his first record in 1949, at the age of 24.  Three years later, his recording of Lowell Fulsom's "Three O'Clock Blues" became a number one R&B hit. 

His only pop hit was "The Thrill Is Gone," from 1969, for which he received a Grammy.  Nevertheless, B.B. King was described by critics as America's "most popular blues guitarist," and with good reason  He had a tremendous influence on rock musicians like British guitarist Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and U2.  B.B. King met the Irish band while performing in Dublin and ended up recording the song "When Love Comes to Town" them in 1988.

B.B. King credited the British rock bands of the 1960s with popularizing the music he loved, making it possible for him to crossover to a mainstream audience:

"When the British groups for example, the Rolling Stones, Cream, the Who, when these groups started to play blues in the U.S., it started to become a very popular kind of music and opened the doors for a lot of black blues singers and musicians like myself,”  King said.

Awards

During his long career, B.B. King received 15 Grammy awards. He was inducted not only into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, but the Rock and Roll and R&B halls as well. He was awarded honorary doctorates from several universities and was honored by presidents. B.B. King kept his music fresh by being true to himself:

"I don't try to play what my ancestors played, as they played it.  In fact, I don't play myself as I did in '49, when I began my career.  I play as I feel today,” he said.

Bobby Womack Dies at 70

American Soul singer Bobby Womack has died.

He started his career in the city Cleveland in the 1950s in a gospel group with his brothers.

In the 1960s, the group recorded on Sam Cooke's label and switched from gospel to secular music.

Womack possessed a distinctive voice and was a powerful songwriter. 

He eventually left his brothers and ventured out on his own.  His hits included Across 110th Street, If You Think You're Lonely Now, That's The Way I Feel About 'Cha, and Woman's Gotta Have It.

Some of Womack's biggest hits were songs written for other artists, including Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Joe Tex and Dusty Springfield.

Womack wrote and recorded with this brothers, It's All Over Now which the Rolling Stones covered.  The New York Times reports the Stones' version became the group's first number one single in Britain and their first international hit. 

Bobby Womack influenced generations of performers and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.

He struggled with drugs and health problems for decades and was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. 

He continued to work and perform after the Alzheimer's diagnosis and in 2012 released his first album in more than a decade.

His website says the 70-year-old Womack was scheduled to start a European tour next month.

When he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Womack said "This is just about as exciting to me as being able to see Barack Obama become the first black president of the United States of America."

Pete Seeger, US Folk Singer, Songwriter and Political Activist, Dies at 94

Legendary American folk singer and political activist Pete Seeger has died at the age of 94.

His family said Seeger passed away Monday of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Seeger was the son of a musicologist who introduced him to rural American folk music while he was a student at a Connecticut boarding school.  He later met and befriended two other legendary American folk singers:  the black blues musician Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie, with whom he toured across the country performing at benefits for labor activists in 1940.

After serving in World War II, he founded the Weavers, a quartet that achieved wide popularity in the early 1950s with such songs as Kisses Sweeter Than Wine, If I Had a Hammer, and Goodnight, Irene, sparking a revival in American folk music.

However, the group's success ended after Seeger was cited for his earlier ties to the Communist Party. He was barred from performing on television and eventually called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he refused to answer questions about his political activities. He was tried and convicted for contempt of Congress and sentenced to jail, but the sentenced was eventually overturned.

Seeger continued to draw huge audiences at college campuses and small nightclubs, and he took part in such causes as civil rights and environmentalism.  His arrangement of We Shall Overcome, which had its roots as a gospel song, became the anthem of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Seeger also wrote such popular songs as Turn, Turn, Turn and Where Have All the Flowers Gone? He earned numerous awards and accolades late in his career, including a Grammy Award in 1993 for lifetime achievement. He was also named a Kennedy Center honoree in 1994, and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as an early influence.

In 2009, he performed at a concert staged at the Lincoln Memorial in celebration of President Barack Obama's first inauguration.

American Rock Pioneer Lou Reed Dead at 71

Influential American rock musician Lou Reed, the widely acknowledged poet laureate of the dark, hard-edged genre known as punk rock, has died in New York.

Reed's agent said the 71-year-old performer, who had been in frail health in recent months, died Sunday outside of New York City of apparent complications from a recent liver transplant.

Known for his cold onstage persona and gaunt appearance, Reed's early compositions with his band, Velvet Underground, focused on New York City's darker themes of drug addiction, sexuality and violence.  Critics say his groundbreaking imagery rivaled that of 1960s icon Bob Dylan, radically expanding lyrical boundaries into themes never before explored in popular music.

Reed had only one commercial hit, the 1972 composition "Walk on the Wild Side."  Other songs popular among his followers included "Heroin," "Sweet Jane" and "All Tomorrow's Parties."

Reed would perform decades later at the White House during the Clinton administration. He also was the subject of a public broadcasting "American Masters" documentary and the recipient of a 1999 Grammy Award.

Remembering J.J. Cale

by Katherine Cole

Songwriter J.J. Cale was a guitarist who preferred to stay in the background and let others make hits of his songs, such as “After Midnight” and “Call Me The Breeze.”

Cale, 74, died on July 26 at a hospital in La Jolla, California. Cause of death was listed as a heart attack.

Cale was born in Oklahoma City and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  He grew up in what he described as a vibrant, boom town. Oil had brought money to Tulsa, and workers from all over the world followed it. Their music came along, too.

“Tulsa is kind of in the middle of the United States and rhythm and blues and blues came out of Mississippi and kind of filtered up there and jazz coming out of the north, Kansas City was a big jazz hotbed in the ‘50s and late ‘40s, and Western swing, which is kind of a Country guy’s impression of swing music of, say, Glenn Miller and those kind of guys. So it was kind of a melting pot in there," Cale said. "Then rock & roll hit about 1956 or ’54, I guess. And I decided that was my kind of music.”

Influenced by all those different styles, Cale picked up a guitar and learned to play. After finishing high school, he performed in bands and began working as a recording engineer.  Cale was friendly with another Tulsa musician, Leon Russell, and the piano player soon convinced him to pack up his guitar and move to Los Angeles. In California, Cale continued working as a guitar player and made his first recordings, but they weren’t hits and he decided to return to Oklahoma.
       
In those days, Cale saw himself as a guitarist first and an engineer second. Songwriting wasn’t his career. In fact, he said, it wasn’t even something he put a lot of effort into. It was just something you had to do, if you were going to make an album.

In 1970, times were tough for Cale and he was about to give up music altogether. One night he turned on the radio and heard a song he had written, “After Midnight,” being sung by Eric Clapton. And suddenly, Cale was a hit songwriter.

“When Eric Clapton cut 'After Midnight,' he sold so many records and it was so big at the time, I decided that I would pursue the songwriting thing." Cale said. "I was 34 years old at that time. I’d been down the pike and back before I had any success at all.”

Soon, Cale was in Nashville, cutting “Naturally”, his most successful solo album, and a disc that featured his hit single, “Crazy Mama.”

While he went on to record more than a dozen solo albums and one Grammy-winning duet CD with Eric Clapton, he saw himself as a songwriter first and a performer second. 

“What my whole object was is not to really sell records. I was trying to sell songs," Cale said. "And instead of running around Nashville or New York or Los Angeles, knocking on people’s doors and trying to get them to cut my songs, we thought that making records would get the songs out there farther and it really did. So, my records really didn’t sell, but musicians started picking up on my sound and my songs and cutting my songs and that turned into a gold mine.” 

Other artists covering Cale’s songs include Dionne Warwick, Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, Carlos Santana, and The Band.

If you’re interested in hearing Cale sing his own songs, there is a newly-released boxed set containing five early albums. “The Road To Escondido,” his Grammy-winning blues duet album with Eric Clapton is another good choice. It’s a mix of originals and covers, including their take on the classic “Sporting Life Blues.”

Disco Era Icon Robin Gibb Dies of Cancer at 62

British singer Robin Gibb, an iconic voice of the disco era of the 1970s, died Sunday in London after a long fight against cancer. He was 62 years old.

Gibb and his brothers Barry and Maurice formed their band, appropriately named the Bee Gees, for the Brothers Gibb, in the late 1950s.

The band was a success. But the brothers did not become global superstars until disco was born in the mid 1970s, becoming the defining sound of the era.

The Bee Gees sold hundreds of millions of records including the smash hits How Deep Is Your Love, Stayin' Alive, and Night Fever.

The band survived the decline of disco's popularity and broke up when Maurice Gibb died in 2003.

Robin Gibb kept performing until earlier this year. He had been battling liver and colon cancer.

Photo courtesy of AVRO. Robin Gibb (of the Bee Gees) in AVRO's TopPop (Dutch television show), 12 January 1973.

Final Exits, 1-7 October 2011

Bert Jansch performing at the Green Man Festival, 21 August 2006. Photo by Chris Barber from Dartford, England.

Obituaries for 1-7 October 2011

1
* Hans Christian Alsvik, 75, Norwegian television presenter. (Norwegian)
* David Bedford, 74, British composer and musician.
* Len Castle, 86, New Zealand potter.
* Ruby Langford Ginibi, 77, Australian author and Aboriginal historian.
* Paulos Mantovanis, 65, Cypriot Orthodox hierarch, Metropolitan of Kyrenia (since 1994). (Greek)
* Sholom Rivkin, 85, American rabbi, last chief rabbi of St. Louis and the United States.
* Johnny Schmitz, 90, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers, Washington Senators).
* Sven Tumba, 80, Swedish ice hockey player (world champion 1953, 1957 and 1962), footballer and golfer, prostate cancer.

2
* Vasily Aleksanyan, 39, Russian lawyer and businessman, Executive Vice President of Yukos, complications from AIDS.
* Don Lapre, 47, American television pitchman, suicide.
* Mark Mendel, 60s, Romanian born Israeli-Jamaican football coach.
* Taha Muhammad Ali, 80, Palestinian poet.
* Peter Przygodda, 69, German film editor, cancer. (German)
* John Romonosky, 82, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Senators).
* François Abu Salem, 60, French-born Palestinian actor and director.
* Cindy Shatto, 54, Canadian Olympic diver, lung cancer.
* Pavlos Tassios, 69, Greek film director. (Greek)
* Piero Weiss, 83, Italian pianist and author, pneumonia.
* Moshe Wertman, 87, Israeli politician.

3
* Kay Armen, 95, American singer, actress and composer.
* Argyris Fatouros, 79, Greek law professor. (Greek)
* Mikko Laine, 30, Finnish rock musician, truck accident.
* Aden Meinel, 88, American astronomer and optical scientist.
* David I. Mitchell, 79, American set designer (Annie), cancer.
* Jim Neal, 81, American basketball player (Syracuse Nationals, Baltimore Bullets).
* Arthur C. Nielsen, Jr., 92, American businessman (ACNielsen), Parkinson's disease.
* Rollin Post, 81, American television reporter.

4
* Doris Belack, 85, American actress (Law & Order, One Life to Live, Tootsie), natural causes.
* Yelena Chernykh, 32, Russian actress, traffic collision. (Russian)
* Kenneth H. Dahlberg, 94, American businessman and World War II fighter ace, natural causes.
* Diana Gribble, 69, Australian publisher (McPhee Gribble), cancer.
* Ralph Hodgin, 96, American baseball player (Boston Bees, Chicago White Sox).
* Dustin Kellogg, 18, American baseball player, traffic collision.
* Hanan Porat, 67, Israeli rabbi, educator and politician, cancer.
* Shmuel Shilo, 81, Israeli actor and director, cancer.
* Aleksandr Yegorov, 59, Russian actor, traffic collision. (Russian)
* Valentina Yudina, 52, Russian actress, traffic collision. (Russian)

5
* Níver Arboleda, 43, Colombian footballer, heart attack. (Spanish)
* Derrick Bell, 80, American law professor (Harvard University), originated critical race theory, carcinoid cancer.
* Graham Dilley, 52, English cricketer, cancer.
* Enver Faja, 77, Albanian architect and diplomat, after long illness.
* Peter Jaks, 45, Swiss Olympic ice hockey player, suicide by train.
* Bert Jansch, 67, Scottish folk guitarist, singer and songwriter (Pentangle), cancer.
* Steve Jobs, 56, American computer entrepreneur and inventor, co-founder of Apple Inc., pancreatic cancer.
* Achilleas Karagiozopoulos, 56, Greek politician, cancer. (Greek)
* Charles Napier, 75, American actor (The Silence of the Lambs, The Blues Brothers).
* Fred Shuttlesworth, 89, American civil rights leader.
* Gökşin Sipahioğlu, 84, Turkish photographer. (French).
* Sarkis Soghanalian, 82, Turkish-born Armenian arms dealer.

6
* Diane Cilento, 78, Australian actress (Tom Jones, The Wicker Man), cancer.
* Birgit Rosengren, 98, Swedish actress. (Swedish)
* Igor Shmakov, 26, Russian actor, leukemia.
* Neil Street, 80, Australian speedway rider.

7
* Zaheer Ahmad, 63, Pakistani-born American doctor, brain hemorrhage.
* Ramiz Alia, 85, Albanian politician, First Secretary of the Party of Labour (1985–1991); President (1991–1992), lung complications.
* Julien Bailleul, 23, French footballer.
* George Baker, 80, English actor (I, Claudius, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries), pneumonia following a stroke.
* Fernando Charrier, 80, Italian Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Alessandria della Paglia (1989–2007).
* Charles Cuprill Oppenheimer, 95, Puerto Rican general. (Spanish)
* Andrew Laszlo, 85, Hungarian cinematographer (First Blood, The Warriors, Newsies).
* Neoklis Lechoudis, 55, Greek basketball player and coach, traffic collision. (Greek)
* Gianni Musy, 80, Italian movie dubber. (Italian)
* Milan Puskar, 77, American pharmacist, co-founder of Mylan, cancer.
* Julio Mario Santo Domingo, 87, Colombian businessman (SABMiller). (Spanish)
* Mishaal al-Tammo, 53, Syrian politician, shot.
* Avner Treinin, 83, Israeli poet and chemist. (Hebrew)
* Phil Walker, 67, British newspaper editor.

Singer, Songwriter Nick Ashford Dies

Nick Ashford, half of the singing and song-writing duo Ashford and Simpson, died Monday at the age of 70 from throat cancer. A former publicist says Ashford died in a New York hospital surrounded by his family.

Ashford and Simpson's writing efforts yielded songs for many artists like Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Chaka Khan. The South Carolina native wrote and recorded with his wife Valerie Simpson at Motown Records. They penned such hits for the duet Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell as “Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “Ain't No Mountain High Enough.” Diana Ross re-recorded “Ain't No Mountain High Enough,” and it became one of her signature songs.

Verdine White of the musical group Earth, Wind and Fire called Ashford's songwriting “unmatched in terms of great songwriting”.

Ashford and Simpson were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.

'Hound Dog' and 'Jailhouse Rock' Songwriter Dead at 78

Jerry Leiber, who along with his song writing partner Mike Stoller penned some of rock's earliest hits, died Monday at age 78 in Los Angeles. Leiber died following a heart ailment.

The duo's most famous songs defined the early years of rock and included: “Hound Dog”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “Yakety Yak”, “Charlie Brown” and “Stand By Me”.

The iconic rock songs by Leiber and Stoller were performed by artists such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Rolling Stones, the Drifters and the Coasters.

In the 1990s, the songwriters' tune “Smokey Joe's Cafe” became the inspiration for a Broadway play. The show won a 1996 Grammy as the best musical show album.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Chairman Martin Bandier called the Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's 60 year partnership one of the greatest and most prolific song writing partnerships of all time.

Remembering Folk Artist Bill Morrissey

2 August 2011
Katherine Cole

Singer-songwriter Bill Morrissey, 59,  died on July 23, but his death hasn’t received the same attention as that of Amy Winehouse on the same day. Based in the northeastern state of New Hampshire, Morrissey was well known to folk music fans, releasing 10 studio albums and earning two Grammy nominations. One of Bill Morrissey’s Grammy nominations came for his 1999 album “Songs of Mississippi John Hurt.”

Morrissey became a professional musician at a young age. He grew up studying the great folk singers and songwriters of the 1960s. He also spent time working in restaurants and as a commercial fisherman, no doubt studying his co-workers as he went about his business, and later turning their quirks and behaviors into song.  Songs about old mill towns and the people who populated them was a specialty of his. “Small Town On The River” is one example.

Morrissey’s own life was as difficult as those of the characters in his songs. He battled alcoholism, depression, and was eventually diagnosed as bipolar. And, as he wrote on his website, “I’m on medication for depression, but sometimes the depression is stronger than the medication.”  He persevered, however, and, on good days, continued to write and perform.

Morrissey released “Something I Saw, or Thought I Saw” in 2001, featuring songs written soon after his second divorce. Many critics compared it to Richard and Linda Thompson’s break-up album “Shoot Out The Lights,” as both deal with fractured relationships. “Birches” is one of Bill Morrissey’s best-loved songs. It about the middle of a marriage, telling the tale of a love that’s still strong, but perhaps not burning as bright as it once did.

Morrissey died while on tour, which is likely when most performers would prefer the inevitable to happen. In addition to his 10 solo CDs, Morrissey and his good friend Greg Brown released a Grammy-nominated duo CD. He also wrote a well-received novel called “Edson,” and had just completed a second novel at the time of his death.  If you’d like to find out more about Bill Morrissey, his songs and his books, visit his website: Bill Morrissey.net.

Private Funeral Tuesday for Amy Winehouse

Flowers, photos and other tributes outside the home of Amy Winehouse in Camden, London, on the evening of her death on 23 July 2011. (Photo: Etrevino)

Private Funeral Tuesday for Amy Winehouse
Tuesday, 26 July 2011

The family of Amy Winehouse is set to hold a private funeral Tuesday for the British singer, who was found dead Saturday inside her home.

A family spokesman said Winehouse will be buried in a private ceremony for family and close friends.

London police said Monday an autopsy failed to determine how the 27-year-old died. They are calling her death unexplained, but say it is not suspicious.

Forensic experts will now carry out toxicology tests, whose results could take several weeks.

Winehouse's parents stepped outside the singer's London home Monday to thank gathered mourners and fans for their support.

The singer led a tumultuous life, struggling with drugs, alcohol and abusive relationships even while critics and fans hailed her as a masterful blues and jazz artist. She gained worldwide success with her Grammy award-winning second album Back to Black.

But Winehouse also struggled to keep her career on track. She cancelled her European tour last month after an audience in Serbia booed her off the stage when she appeared to be disorientated and incoherent.

British Singer Amy Winehouse Dies at 27



Amy Winehouse at the Eurockéennes of 2007 (Photo: Bojars)

British Singer Amy Winehouse Dies at 27

Saturday, 23 July 2011

Police in Britain say music star Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her home in north London.

A police statement said at this time the death is being treated as “unexplained.”

Winehouse, 27, underwent several rounds of treatment for drug addiction, the latest in May. The singer, known for her heavy tattoos and exaggerated beehive hair style, led a tumultuous life marked by drinking binges and physical altercations with her husband and others.

Last month she canceled a European tour after appearing disoriented and incoherent during her concert in Belgrade. Her performance met with boos and jeers from the audience.

Winehouse, born into a family of jazz musicians, shot to fame in Britain in 2003 with her debut album, called Frank. Her style, influenced by 1960s soul music, was unconventional and has been cited as an influence for later female stars.

She found worldwide success with her second album, the Grammy Award-winning album Back to Black. Her contralto vocals expressed both pain and defiance on her best-known single, “Rehab.”

The refrain to that song describes her reluctance to seek drug treatment: “They tried to make me go to rehab; I said no, no, no.”

Final Exits, 8-14 July 2011

Rob Grill of The Grass Roots, circa 1982.

Obituaries for 8-14 July 2011

8
* Kenny Baker, 85, American fiddler, complications from a stroke.
* Billy Blanco, 87, Brazilian composer, complications from a stroke.
* Roberts Blossom, 87, American actor (Doc Hollywood, Escape from Alcatraz, Home Alone).
* Sam Denoff, 83, American Emmy Award-winning television writer (The Dick Van Dyke Show, That Girl), Alzheimer's disease.
* Aleksis Dreimanis, 96, Latvian-born Canadian geologist.
* Pete Duranko, 67, American football player (Denver Broncos), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
* Betty Ford, 93, American First Lady (1974–1977) and co-founder of Betty Ford Center.
* Camille Lembi Zaneli, 61, Congolese Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Isangi (since 2000), plane crash. (Italian)
* George McAnthony, 45, Italian country singer, heart attack. (German)
* Paul Michael, 84, American actor, heart failure.
* Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, 95, Spanish-born Mexican philosopher, writer and professor. (Spanish)

9
* Don Ackerman, 80, American basketball player (New York Knicks), after short illness.
* Facundo Cabral, 74, Argentine singer and songwriter, shot.
* Markos Dragoumis, 85, Greek columnist, author and politician. (Greek)
* Ralph Goldston, 82, American football player (Philadelphia Eagles, Hamilton Tiger-Cats).
* Carl T. Langford, 92, American politician, Mayor of Orlando, Florida (1967–1980).
* Percy Oliver, 92, Australian Olympic swimmer.
* Tatiana Pankova, 94, Russian actress, People's Artist (Maly Theatre). (Russian)
* Arvo Salo, 79, Finnish writer and politician, MP (1966–1970, 1979–1983) and Minister of Culture (1982–1983). (Finnish)
* Hideo Tanaka, 78, Japanese director (Sukeban Deka The Movie), stomach cancer. (Japanese)
* Würzel, 61, British guitarist (Motörhead), ventricular fibrillation.

10
* Pierrette Alarie, 89, Canadian soprano, wife of tenor Léopold Simoneau. (French)
* Alfonso Bauer, 93, Guatemalan political activist, nosocomial infection. (Spanish)
* Travis Bean, 63, American guitar maker, cancer.
* Ragnar Lundberg, 86, Swedish athlete. (Swedish)
* Frank Mascara, 81, American politician, U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania (1995–2003).
* Roland Petit, 87, French ballet choreographer.
* Deacon Turner, 56, American football player (Cincinnati Bengals), shot.
* Lee Vines, 92, Canadian-born American television announcer (What's My Line?) and actor, complications from a fall and pneumonia.

11
* Michael Evans, 59, British Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of East Anglia (since 2003), prostate cancer.
* Tom Gehrels, 86, Dutch-born American astronomer.
* Rob Grill, 67, American singer and songwriter (The Grass Roots).
* Alex Hay, 78, British golf journalist.
* Andreas Ioannides, 53, Cypriot navy chief, explosion.
* Jaroslav Jiřík, 71, Czech hockey player (St. Louis Blues), plane crash.
* Lambros Lambrou, 45, Cypriot naval officer, Commander of the Evangelos Florakis Navy Base, explosion.
* George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, 88, British aristocrat, magazine editor and arts administrator, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.
* Fonce Mizell, 68, American record producer (Mizell Brothers). (death reported on this date)

12
* Premangsu Chatterjee, 83, Indian cricketer.
* William Crozier, 81, Irish artist.
* Howard Hilton, 47, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals).
* Allan Jeans, 77, Australian football player and coach, pulmonary fibrosis.
* Simon Jubani, 84, Albanian Roman Catholic prelate, after long illness. (Albanian)
* Ahmed Wali Karzai, 50, Afghan politician, brother of President Hamid Karzai, shot.
* Jokapeci Koroi, 79, Fijian politician, President of Fiji Labour Party (1991–2011).
* Charles Asa Schleck, 86, American Roman Catholic prelate, titular archbishop and under-secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (1995–2000).
* Sherwood Schwartz, 94, American television producer, creator of The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island.
* Zdeněk Sýkora, 91, Czech abstract painter.

13
* Al Debbo, 87, South African comedian.
* Cornel Fugaru, 71, Romanian composer, cancer. (Romanian)
* Jerry Ragovoy, 80, American songwriter ("Time Is on My Side"), stroke.
* Heinz Reincke, 86, German actor. (German)

14
* Leo Kirch, 84, German media entrepreneur.
* Kennedy Ondiek, 44, Kenyan Olympic athlete.
* Antonio Prieto, 85, Chilean singer and actor, cardiac arrest. (Spanish)

Argentine Folk Singer Killed in Guatemala

Saturday, 9 July 2011

One of Latin America's most famous folk singers, Facundo Cabral, has been murdered in Guatemala.

Officials say gunmen opened fire on the Argentine singer's vehicle Saturday in Guatemala City. At least one other person was wounded in the attack.

The 74-year-old Cabral had been on his way to the airport. A second car carrying one or more of his bodyguards was also struck by bullets.

The motive of the shooting was not clear.

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said officials are investigating.

Cabral became famous in the 1970s as a protest singer. He went into exile in Mexico after Argentina came under military rule in 1976.

One of his most well-known songs, “No Soy de Aqui, Ni Soy De Alla” - “I'm Not From Here Nor There” – was covered by many other artists, including Spanish singer Julio Iglesias.

(Photo of singer and writer Facundo Cabral by UNLP.)

Remembering Hazel Dickens

Remembering Hazel Dickens
Katherine Cole, VOA
Washington
27 April 2011

Trailblazing bluegrass and folk singer-songwriter Hazel Dickens recently died at the age of 76.  Dickens was a performer whose childhood in a West Virginia coal mining town led her to become a labor activist and inspired a life-long musical career.

“It’s Hard to Tell The Singer From The Song” is the title track to Hazel Dickens' 1987 solo CD. Many of Hazel’s songs, like “They’ll Never Keep Us Down,” are anthems to working men and women, with the plight of non-unionized workers being a subject close to her heart, as was the coal mining country that she grew up in.

One of Hazel Dickens' most famous is “Black Lung,” written for a brother who died of the disease. Black lung is the common name for any lung disease developing from breathing coal dust.

Hazel Dickens grew up the eighth of 11 children in a poor mining family in West Virginia. Poverty forced her to leave the family home and move to Baltimore, Maryland, where she worked in factories alongside her sister and two brothers.

In a VOA interview several years ago, Hazel said the four attended music gatherings in their rare free time. At one, she met Mike Seeger, the younger brother of folk legend Pete Seeger, and they soon formed a band with her two brothers.

Over the next few years, Hazel became a regular part of the Baltimore and Washington music scene, playing and singing in several bands.

In the early 1960s, she teamed up with Alice Gerrard, and the two spent hours at the United States Library of Congress, researching early folk songs. They recorded only two albums together, but countless female musicians cite Hazel and Alice as influences and continue to perform their songs like “Won’t You Come and Sing For Me.”

Hazel Dickens’ solo career began with the soundtrack to an Academy Award-winning documentary film about a violent miner’s strike. “Harlan County USA” is a very powerful film about a 13-month strike, and it highlights the central role women played. Hazel has four songs on the soundtrack, including “They’ll Never Keep Us Down.”

Songs like that one are a reason that Hazel Dickens was called the “voice of the working class.” While many come from her own life, Hazel’s songs are ones that many people, not just those working down deep in coal mines or in factories can identify with.

Hazel Dickens lived in Washington for many years and, despite bouts of ill health, performed at the South by Southwest music conference just a month before her death.  She received many honors and accolades over her long career, including membership in the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, a lifetime achievement award from the Folk Alliance International,and on April 16 of this year Hazel was given the Washington Monument award by the D.C. Bluegrass Union.

Singer Phoebe Snow of 'Poetry Man' Fame Dies

Singer Phoebe Snow of 'Poetry Man' Fame Dies
Tuesday, 26 April 2011

U.S. singer-songwriter Phoebe Snow, best known for her 1975 smash hit “Poetry Man,” has died.

Snow's manager said she died of complications from a stroke she suffered last year.

The New York-born Snow was widely known as a folk guitarist who also was adept at blues and jazz.

She dropped out of show business at the height of her fame in the mid 1970s to care for her daughter, who was born with severe brain damage.

Snow occasionally would return to the spotlight to make albums, do concert tours, and record television commercials.

She was one of former president Bill Clinton's favorite singers, and performed for him several times at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

Final Exits, 8-14 March 2011

Jack Hardy performing (as half of The Folk Brothers) at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, 25 July 2008. (Photo: Dan Tappan)

Obituaries for 8-14 March 2011

8
* Iraj Afshar, 85, Iranian bibliographer and historian.
* Sheekh Cumar Faaruuq, 71, Somali diplomat and religious advocate, heart failure.
* Herb Kawainui Kane, 82, American artist.
* Moses Katjiuongua, 68, Namibian politician.
* Jim Keane, 87, American football player (Chicago Bears).
* St. Clair Lee, 66, American musician (Hues Corporation).
* Sally Meyerhoff, 27, American long-distance runner, traffic accident.
* Bronko Nagurski Jr., 73, American player of Canadian football (Hamilton Tiger-Cats).
* Mike Starr, 44, American bassist (Alice in Chains, Sun Red Sun). (body found on this date)

9
* David S. Broder, 81, American journalist (The Washington Post), complications from diabetes.
* Edward A. Burdick, 89, American civil servant.
* Seán Cronin, 91, Irish journalist and republican, Irish Republican Army chief of staff (1957–1958, 1959–1960).
* Armando Goyena, 88, Filipino actor.
* Andrew Hao Jinli, 95, Chinese Roman Catholic underground Bishop of Xiwanzi (since 1984).
* Bob Marcucci, 81, American talent agent, respiratory complications.
* Des Meagher, 67, Australian footballer (Hawthorn).
* Manolis Rasoulis, 65, Greek singer-songwriter, author and journalist. (Greek)
* Inge Sørensen, 86, Danish swimmer and Olympic bronze medalist (1936). (Danish)

10
* Johnnie Baston, 37, American murderer, first inmate in U.S. executed by single drug (pentobarbital).
* Armand Bigot, 76, French Olympic equestrian. (French)
* Mario Clavell, 88, Argentine singer, actor and composer, after long illness. (Spanish)
* Günter Gollasch, 88, German clarinetist and bandleader. (German)
* Nick Harbaruk, 67, Polish-born Canadian ice hockey player, bone cancer.
* Baliram Kashyap, 74, Indian politician, MP for Bastar (since 1998), after long illness.
* Gabriel Laderman, 81, American painter, cancer.
* Nancy Merse, 79, American politician, Mayor of Edgewater, New Jersey (since 2003), cancer.
* Danny Paton, 75, Scottish footballer.
* Emmett J. Rice, 91, American economist and banking official, heart failure.
* Jiro Sakagami, 76, Japanese comedian, cerebrovascular disease. (Japanese)
* David Viñas, 83, Argentine dramatist, critic, and novelist. (Spanish)

11
* Jorge Cherques, 83, Brazilian actor, natural causes. (Portuguese)
* Rita Guerrero, 47, Mexican actress and singer (Santa Sabina), breast cancer.
* Jack Hardy, 63, American singer/songwriter.
* Hugh Martin, 96, American songwriter ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas") and film composer (Meet Me in St. Louis, High Spirits), natural causes.
* Danny Stiles, 87, American radio host.
* Gary Wichard, 60, American sports agent, pancreatic cancer.
* Donny George Youkhanna, 60, Iraqi archaeologist, anthropologist and author, heart attack.

12
* Ali Hassan al-Jaber, 56, Qatari photojournalist (Al Jazeera), shot.
* Günter Amendt, 71, German sociologist, sexual liberation activist and author, traffic accident. (German)
* Donald Brenner, 64, Canadian judge, Chief Justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court (2000–2009).
* Derry Brownfield, 79, American broadcaster, heart attack. (body found on this date)
* Olive Dickason, 91, Canadian historian and author.
* Juan García-Santacruz Ortiz, 77, Spanish Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Guadix (1992–2009).
* Shifra Lerer, 95, Argentinian-born American Yiddish theatre actress, stroke.
* Joe Morello, 82, American drummer (The Dave Brubeck Quartet).
* Dietmar Mues, 65, German actor and author, traffic accident. (German)
* John Nettleship, 71, British teacher, inspiration for character of Severus Snape, cancer.
* Mitchell Page, 59, American baseball player (Oakland Athletics), and coach (St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Nationals).
* Nilla Pizzi, 91, Italian singer. (Italian)
* Italo Pizzolante, 82, Venezuelan musician and composer. (Spanish)
* Tawfik Toubi, 88, Israeli Arab politician, last surviving member of the first Knesset.

13
* Brian Lanker, 63, American photojournalist, pancreatic cancer.
* Rick Martin, 59, Canadian ice hockey player (Buffalo Sabres, Los Angeles Kings), heart attack.
* Ritchie Pickett, 56, New Zealand country singer.
* Nicholas Smisko, 75, American clergyman, Head of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese (since 1984), cancer.
* Melvin Sparks, 64, American jazz and soul guitarist.
* Owsley Stanley, 76, American-born Australian underground LSD chemist and sound engineer (Grateful Dead), traffic accident.
* Leo Steinberg, 90, American art historian and critic.
* Vitaly Vulf, 80, Russian theater critic and television host.

14
* Gerald Barry, 63, Irish journalist and broadcaster, illness.
* Todd Cerney, 57, American country musician and producer, cancer.
* Joaquim Germano Pinto Machado Correia da Silva, 80, Portuguese politician, Governor of Macau (1986–1987).
* Bob Greaves, 76, British journalist and broadcaster, cancer.
* Eduard Gushchin, 70, Russian Olympic bronze medal-winning (1968) athlete.
* Ronnie Hammond, 60, American singer (Atlanta Rhythm Section), heart attack.
* Big Jack Johnson, 70, American guitarist and blues singer.
* Giora Leshem, 71, Israeli poet and publisher. (Hebrew)
* Larry Zolf, 76, Canadian journalist and humorist.