Stompin’ Tom Connors – 1936 to 2013
Stompin’ Tom Connors, one of Canada’s great folk heroes, passed away on March 6, 2013 of natural causes at his home in Peterborough Ontario.
His songs were about Canada, the places from coast to coast, with a focus on the working people from working towns in Ontario.
Stompin’ Tom was a fiercely patriotic Canadian in his songs and career.
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Levon Helm (b. 1940 - d. 2012) famous rock musician Fredericton Harvest Blues Festival 2011 (photo Stephen Pate)
His family posted this brief message on Facebook
“Levon Helm passed peacefully this afternoon. He was surrounded by family, friends and band mates and will be remembered by all he touched as a brilliant musician and a beautiful soul.”
He had suffered from throat cancer which has been in remission, although his singing voice never fully recovered.
Update – Remembering Levon Helm
Jim Marshall of Marshall amps - the sound of rock and roll (photo credit Damien Maguire)
James Charles “Jim” Marshall OBE (July 29, 1923 – April 5, 2012) was a man with poor health, a musician and business person.
In the 1960s he created the Marshall guitar amp and changed the volume of rock music forever.
He died on April 5, 2012 at a hospice in London, UK surrounded by his wife and four children. Continue reading
Earl Scruggs (photo credit - whittlz Flickr)
By Stephen Pate – Earl Scruggs, the man behind bluegrass banjo and The Beverley Hillbillies theme song “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” died in Nashville, TN at 88 on March 28, 2012.
Bill Monroe sang the high lonesome sound of bluegrass but it was the lightning 3-finger picking of Earl Scruggs’ banjo that propelled the music.
Scruggs left the claw hammer style of banjo, which is similar to thumb picking and strumming the guitar, and popularized the clever and fast 3-finger picking style.
Although other banjo players played 3-finger style, it was Earl Scruggs job with Bill Monroe in 1945 that catapulted the style to the forefront. Scruggs-style is the defacto standard for banjo players today. Continue reading
Paul Leka (photo Joseph Bly NY Times)
Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye went # 1 for a band called Steam. Today it is the sports chant of fans for retiring pitchers and sports losers of all stripes.
Paul Leka died of lung cancer on October 12th in hospice near his Connecticut home. Leka was 68.
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Elizabeth Berrigan invisible in death (roses from Island Deaths)
She was a tall, beautiful and intelligent Irish woman of a proud Prince Edward Island family.
Those eyes of hers could flash with wit, laughter and life.
They were also windows to a tortured soul who struggled for 30 years with mental illness and disability. Continue reading
Horace MacNevin died on June 27, 2010.
Mr. MacNevin and his wife were victims of a horrific propane explosion that destroyed their West Devon, PEI home on April 27, 2010.
Mr. MacNevin suffered numerous injuries from the explosion and never recovered. He spent more than 4 weeks in the burn unit in Halifax before being transferred back to the Prince County Hospital in Summerside, PEI.
His wife spent seven weeks in recovery in hospital as well.
The explosion was caused, according to the Fire Marshall, from a propane leak. Propane explosions are more common than officials want to admit.
Death notice from Island Deaths.
