Died On This Date (September 20, 1973) Maury Muehleisen / Died With Jim Croce
themusicsover Maury Muehleisen
January 14, 1949 – September 20, 1973
Maury Muehleisen was a songwriter and guitarist best known as the recording and performing partner of Jim Croce. Muehleisen had already released an album on Capitol Records when me met Croce in 1970. They began working together, and the magic was immediate. Muehleisen and Croce had a way of bettering each other both in the studio and on stage. Upon the release of Croce’s debut solo album, his career took off, and he took Muehleisen with him. Together the mounted a seemingly never ending dates on television and on tour. But then on September 20, 1973, Muehleisen and Croce boarded an ill fated flight from Louisana to Texas. Just after takeoff, the small commercial plane clipped a tree just beyond the runway. The plane crashed, killing Muehleisen and Croce instantly. The cause was officially ruled as pilot error, but some early reports indicated that the pilot may have suffered a heart attack.
Ben Webster was a prominent saxophonist who made his mark playing swing. He is considered one of the most important players of the idiom. He got his start in the Young Family Band alongside the great, 
Chris Puma was the founding guitarist for New York City band, Candiria. Formed in 1992, the band was a quick hit with the local scene due to their unique blending of punk, funk, hip-hop and jazz. Puma stayed with the band through 1997 and can be heard on their first album, Surrealistic Madness. Chris Puma passed away on September 20, 2009. Cause of death was not immediately released.
Gram Parsons was a highly influential singer-songwriter who helped launch what would later be called country rock and then alt-country or Americana. Parsons began playing the guitar as a teenager to escape a less than ideal home life. The first group he played with, the Shilohs, were a folk band in the tradition of the Kingston Trio. When the band broke up, he and other Boston area folk musicians formed the International Submarine Band with whom he began to develop a sound the borrowed the best from country, folk and rock. They enjoyed moderate success, primarily getting airplay on the up-and-coming progressive radio stations. In 1968, Parsons was asked to join the Byrds as a replacement for David Crosby and Michael Clarke. He started on keyboards but soon switched to guitar, helping guide the group down a more country rock path. Parsons left the Byrds in the summer of 1968. He joined back up with the Byrds’ Chris Hillman soon after to form the Flying Burrito Brothers whose debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin would be a direct influence on the likes of the Eagles, Dwight Yoakam and later, Wilco and Ryan Adams. By the early ’70s, Parsons was working as a solo artist while recording and performing with good friend, Emmylou Harris. It was during this period that Parsons’ inner demons were taking control in the form of substance abuse. He was also spending more and more time in an area he had become fond of, Joshua Tree National Monument in the desert outside of Los Angeles. He liked to go there and take LSD while searching for UFOs. It was during one of these trips that Gram Parsons apparently overdosed on morphine and alcohol and died at the age of 26.