I know the eyes of the world are largely focused on something else, right now…
And I don’t expect many (any?) of the folks here knew much of the man, or his music…
And so I’d like to offer up a small glimpse of an Artist who has now passed.
A prolific and accomplished songwriter, with a distinct vocal style, he was a balladeer icon of what we call “Red Dirt Music”; a sound he helped craft & cultivate on the dusty roads, somewhere between Stillwater, OK and Austin, TX.
He was a cofounder of Music Road Records, which went on to operate both Cedar Creek Studios and Cherokee Creek Studios, in and around Austin, and he may have been the most ardent fan of Woody Guthrie’s music to have every drawn a breath, outside Arlo & Sarah Lee Guthrie, themselves.
His path led him from Wills Point, TX, through Bohemia Beat Records and Red House Records, to last week’s sold-out tribute concert in his honor, at the Paramount Theater in Austin, just a few days before his passing. Along the way, he managed to garner a spot on Austin City Limits, release 19 albums, and also serve as Producer on Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne, which featured Lyle Lovett, Bruce Springsteen and Bonnie Raitt, among others.
If your musical tastes run in his direction, perhaps you’ll explore more of his catalogue, and perhaps then you might purchase some of his music, which would almost certainly help ease whatever burden something called “spindle cell sarcoma” has put on his family.
Ladies and Gentlemen…
The Artist… Jimmy LaFave: