Died On This Date (March 20, 2011) Ralph Mooney / Steel Guitar Legend
themusicsover Ralph Mooney
September 16, 1928 – March 20, 2011
Ralph Mooney was an innovative and influential steel guitar player who launched his career after moving from Oklahoma to California during the 1940s. By the ’50s, he was a staff player for Capitol Records where he played on records by the likes of Buck Owens, Rose Maddox, Wanda Jackson, and Merle Haggard. He later spent the better part of twenty years playing with Waylon Jennings. By all accounts, the “Bakersfield sound” may never have been fully realized without the genius of Mooney. As a songwriter, Mooney made perhaps his biggest mark with the 1956 Ray Price hit, “Crazy Heart,” which he co-wrote with Chuck Seals. Although he had been retired since the mid ’90s, Marty Stuart coaxed Mooney out of retirement to play on his 2010 Grammy-winning Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions. Ralph Mooney was 82 when he passed away on March 20, 2011.
Thanks to Jon Grimson for the assist.
Aashid Himons was a beloved reggae and world music performer who was a fixture of the Nashville club scene for many years. Himons’ career stretched as far back as the ’50s when he, under his given name of Archie Himons was performing doo wop and R&B throughout the New York City and Washington DC areas. For a time, he fronted his own Little Archie & the Majestics. He eventually settled in Nashville where he fronted Afrikan Dreamland who was reportedly the first reggae group to be played on MTV during its infancy. It was during that period that he and the group gained much of its popularity thanks in part to heavy play on college radio stations. On March 19, 2011, Aashid Himons passed away following a long illness. He was 68.
Ferlin Husky was a country music singer who launched his career in 1945 and released a string of hits that stretched through the mid ’70s. During WWII Husky, a Merchant Marine, entertained the troops on his ship. After the war, he landed a recording contract with Capitol Records thanks to the help of 