Died On This Date (December 16, 2013) Ray Price / Country Music Icon
themusicsover Ray Price
January 12, 1926 – December 16, 2013
Ray Price was a legendary country singer, musician and songwriter whose smooth baritone was one of the finest that country music has ever known. Born in eastern Texas, Price began singing for an Abilene radio station upon his return from WWII. He moved to Nashville during the early ’50s and even roomed with Hank Williams for a bit. After managing Williams’ Drifting Cowboys, he formed the Cherokee Cowboys in 1953 – a group that at one point or another counted Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, Johnny Paycheck and Johnny Bush as its own. Over the years, Price scored iconic hits with “Release Me,” “For The Good Times,” and “Night Life,” to name just a few. He was recognized with two Grammys – for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1971, and for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals with Nelson in 2008. Price continued to record and perform well into his 80s and was even hoping to do upwards of 100 live dates after learning he had pancreatic cancer in November of 2012. Ray Price ultimately died from the cancer on December 16, 2013. He was 87.
What You Should Own
Nick Hunter was a respected music industry veteran who worked in radio promotion and sales. Over the course of a career that spanned some 40 years, he worked for Giant, Atlantic, and Warner Bros. Records, among others. In 1999, he founded his own label, Audium Records. Over the years, Hunter was directly involved with the successes of such artists as Willie Nelson, Randy Travis, and Johnny Paycheck who he is credited for reviving his career and probably his life in the early ’70s. In later years, Hunter was perhaps better known as “Nick the Stick” for his two decades as a popular radio sports commentator in Nashville. Nick Hunter, 67, passed away on December 15, 2010 after a long struggle with cancer.
Although he was probably the most important figure from the country-soul scene of the ’60s and ’70s, Arthur Alexander was by no means a house hold name. But as a songwriter, he DID have some heavy weight fans in the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, being the only artist to have songs covered by all three. Alexander’s songs have also been recorded or performed live by George Jones, Johnny Paycheck, the Hollies, 