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.
Dan Seals had a string of pop and country hits both as a solo artist and as one half of England Dan & John Ford Coley. Seals’ hits included “I’d Really Love To See You Tonight” (England Dan & John Ford Coley), “Bop,” “Meet Me In Montana” (with Marie Osmond), and “Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold).” Seals was born in Texas on February 8, 1949 into a musically talented family that included brother Jim Seals (Seals & Crofts), and cousins 
