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R&B Singer Songwriter

Don Bryant, Memphis-Born R&B Singer and Songwriter, Dies at 83

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Photo credit: Matt White via Wikimedia

Don Bryant, the Memphis-born R&B singer and songwriter whose emotionally direct writing and gospel-honed voice helped shape the legacy of Hi Records, died on December 26, 2025. He was 83. Bryant was born on April 4, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Raised in the church, Bryant began singing gospel at an early age, a foundation that would inform the intensity and conviction of his later soul recordings. He emerged in the late 1960s as a solo artist, cutting a series of impassioned singles that blended Southern soul with spiritual urgency. Tracks such as “How Many More Years” and “There’s a Better Day Coming” earned him a devoted following, even if mainstream success remained elusive.

Bryant’s most lasting impact came as a songwriter. As a key contributor to Hi Records, he helped define the label’s understated yet emotionally potent sound. His writing credits include “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” co-written with Bernard Miller and recorded by Bryant’s wife, Ann Peebles, along with “98.6 Degrees (The Shade)” and “You’re What’s Happening (In the World Today).” Working closely with producer Willie Mitchell, Bryant’s songs became central to the Memphis soul canon.

After stepping away from the music industry for several decades to focus on family life, Bryant returned with Don’t Give Up on Love in 2017. The album was widely praised, with critics noting that his voice, though aged, carried even greater emotional depth and authority.

In his later years, Bryant was widely recognized as a revered figure in Southern soul, celebrated for songwriting that valued honesty over flash and feeling over excess. His work continues to resonate through samples, covers, and reissues, reaffirming his place in the lineage of Memphis music.

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Musician New Wave Rock

Perry Bamonte, Guitarist and Keyboardist for the Cure, Dead at 65

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Photo credit: Chris “BuB” Cardi via Wikimedia

Perry Bamonte, the guitarist and keyboardist whose understated musicianship helped shape some of the Cure’s most enduring late-era work, died on December 25, 2025, after a short illness. He was 65.

Born Perry Archangelo Bamonte in London on September 3, 1960, his path into one of alternative music’s most influential bands began behind the scenes. He entered the Cure’s orbit in the mid-’80s as a guitar technician and close collaborator within Robert Smith’s inner circle, earning a reputation for reliability, musical fluency, and a deep understanding of the band’s evolving sound.

In 1990, Bamonte stepped into the lineup as a full member, contributing guitar, keyboards, and additional textures at a pivotal moment in the band’s history. His playing became part of the fabric of albums that followed, including Wish, Wild Mood Swings, Bloodflowers, and The Cure. While rarely in the spotlight, his role was essential, adding atmosphere, color, and stability as the band expanded its sonic range through the 1990s and early 2000s.

Onstage, Bamonte was a constant. He performed hundreds of shows during his initial run with the band, helping define the Cure’s live sound for more than a decade. After departing the lineup in 2005, he remained closely connected to the band’s legacy and was included in their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2019, a recognition of his lasting contribution.

Bamonte returned to the Cure in 2022, rejoining the group for the Shows of a Lost World tour. Over the next two years, he appeared on stages around the world, once again anchoring the band’s performances with a calm presence and precise musical touch. His final shows took place in 2024.

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New Wave Radio Record Label

Howie Klein, Influential Sire and Reprise Records Executive, Dies at 77

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Photo credit: Iris Schneider via Wikimedia

Howie Klein, the influential record executive who helped shape punk, new wave, alternative and mainstream rock through his leadership at Sire and Reprise Records, died on December 24, 2025, after a battle with cancer. He was 77.

Born in Brooklyn on February 20, 1948, Klein’s path into music began early and loudly. While attending Stony Brook University in the late 1960s, he booked concerts on campus featuring artists who would soon define a generation, including the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. That early instinct for spotting culture in motion would define the rest of his career.

Klein started out as a rock radio DJ in San Francisco before co-founding the independent label 415 Records in the late 1970s. The label became an important launching pad for emerging punk and new wave artists, including Romeo Void, Translator and Wire Train, and established Klein as a trusted advocate for artists operating outside the mainstream.

In 1987, Klein joined Sire Records, a label long associated with adventurous and genre-shifting artists. Two years later, he was named president of Reprise Records, the storied Warner Bros. imprint founded by Frank Sinatra. During his tenure, Reprise released and supported work from a wide range of influential artists, including Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, Lou Reed, Talking Heads and Depeche Mode.

Klein’s years at Reprise coincided with a period when alternative music broke into the mainstream, and he was widely respected for balancing commercial success with artistic integrity. Colleagues and artists alike credited him with trusting musicians’ instincts and allowing careers to unfold rather than forcing quick results.

Classic Rock Musician Singer Songwriter

Died On This Date (December 22, 2025) Chris Rea / Yacht Rock Pioneer

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Photo Credit: Dutch Simba via Wikimedia

Chris Rea, the English singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his gravelly vocals and blues-influenced sound, died on December 22, 2025. He was 74. His family said he died peacefully in hospital following a short illness.

Rea was born March 4, 1951, in Middlesbrough, England, to an Italian father and Irish mother. He began playing guitar in his early 20s and signed his first record deal in the mid-’70s. His debut album, Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?, was released in 1978 and included “Fool (If You Think It’s Over),” which became an international hit and earned a Grammy nomination.

Over the next four decades, Rea released more than 25 studio albums and sold an estimated 30 million records worldwide, with his strongest commercial success in the UK and Europe. His best-known albums include On the Beach (1986), Dancing with Strangers (1987), The Road to Hell (1989), and Auberge (1991). Several of these releases topped the UK Albums Chart and established him as a consistent presence in British popular music through the 1980s and early 1990s.

Rea was widely recognized for his distinctive slide guitar style, rooted in blues and soul, and for songwriting that often focused on work, travel, relationships, and everyday experience. His voice and guitar tone became defining elements of his recordings and live performances.

One of his most enduring songs, “Driving Home for Christmas,” was first released in 1986 and grew steadily over time into one of the UK’s most frequently played holiday recordings. The song regularly re-entered the charts decades after its initial release.

In the early 2000s, Rea faced significant health issues, including pancreatic cancer, which led to major surgery, and later a stroke in 2016. After these setbacks, he shifted his focus toward blues-based projects and released a large volume of music independently, often through his own label, Jazzee Blue.

Chris Rea continued recording and releasing music well into his later years, largely outside the mainstream music industry. His career spanned nearly fifty years and remained closely aligned with the musical influences that shaped his earliest work.

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Americana Musician Singer Songwriter

Died On This Date (December 15, 2025) Joe Ely / Alt-Country Legend

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Photo Credit: Republic Country Club via Wikimedia

Joe Ely, the Texas-born singer, songwriter, and bandleader whose music carried the dust, humor, and hard-earned poetry of the Lone Star State far beyond its borders, has died. He was 78.

Born on February 9, 1947 in Amarillo and raised in Lubbock, Ely came out of a West Texas scene that quietly reshaped American music. Alongside Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, he co-founded the Flatlanders, a group whose early work planted the seeds for what would later be called progressive country. Though the band’s influence would take decades to fully register, its impact proved lasting and profound.

Ely’s solo career brought that restless West Texas spirit into sharper focus. Beginning with his 1977 self-titled debut, followed by albums like Honky Tonk Masquerade, Down on the Drag, Live Shots, and Letter to Laredo, Ely wrote songs that felt road-tested and lived-in. His music blurred lines between country, rock, folk, and border sounds, delivered with a voice that sounded both conversational and battle-worn. He sang about small towns, long nights, border crossings, and the quiet resolve of people who keep moving forward.

Onstage, Ely earned a reputation as a fearless performer. His shows were physical, loud, and unpredictable, powered by a band that matched his intensity. That same energy caught the attention of the Clash in the late 1970s, leading to shared bills in the UK and a rare cultural exchange that proved Texas songwriting and punk urgency spoke the same language.

Collaboration remained central to Ely’s life in music. He worked with Bruce Springsteen, Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos, and many others, while repeatedly returning to the Flatlanders for reunions and new recordings that deepened the group’s legacy. Even later in life, albums like Panhandle Rambler, Satisfaction Guaranteed, and Love and Freedom showed an artist still curious, still engaged, and still writing from experience rather than nostalgia.

Joe Ely leaves behind a catalog that reads like a map of American roots music, marked by detours, borderlines, and back roads. His songs remain out there, rolling down the highway, exactly where they belong.

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