Johnny McCauley born 23 April 1925

Johnny McCauley (23 April 1925 – 22 March 2012) was an Irish singer-songwriter who the founder of the “Country & Irish” sound. He was one of Derry/Londonderry’s most celebrated music stars who penned  more than 80 songs.

McCauley was born in Fahan, County Donegal, Ireland, according to several sources, though other reports falsely state his birthplace was in Myroe near Limavady, County Londonderry. He grew up in the Rosemount area of the city and moved to London as a young man. In 1953 he took up singing professionally with his band, The Westernaires at The Galtymore Club, Cricklewood, London.

Always a country music fan, he started to write and release songs on his own Denver Records label and formed a band of his own, 'The Johnny McCauley Trio', which toured extensively in and around London. It was not long before his songs were being covered by a host of Irish singing stars. His blend of American country sounds with Irish-based lyrics proved a winning combination. The members of the Johnny McCauley Trio were Johnny McCauley (guitar and vocals), Johnny O'Shea (vocals and drums) and Paddy Kelly (vocals and accordion).

                                

Johnny gained a big reputation around the Irish community in London and was a very good songwriter. His song writing blossomed and he wrote some memorable hits for showbands. His first hit was Donegal Shore which helped launch the career of Daniel O’Donnell. He also wrote Four Country Roads for Big Tom, Among the Wicklow Hills for Larry Cunningham,(No.2 in the Irish Top Ten in 1966) and Pretty Little Girl from Omagh for Brian Coll (No.10 in 1969). Later Big Tom & The Mainliners scored their biggest ever success with the McCauley composition ‘Four Country Roads’, which reached no.5 in 1981. He has been credited with creating the Country and Irish sound which is still being used by bands and performers with great effect to this day. The song that was closest to his heart was his own composition Hometown on the Foyle.

As a small-scale operation, Denver Records was run single-handedly by McCauley until at least 1971, later involving his wife Phyllis, and it catered specifically to the cultural needs of Irish immigrants by producing affordable, accessible recordings that captured themes of homesickness and rural life. By the mid-1970s, distribution shifted to Selecta, but the label's output remained modest, with label designs evolving from black-on-yellow to silver-on-blue to distinguish UK and Irish pressings, reflecting its grassroots approach amid the competitive London music market. The venture underscored McCauley's entrepreneurial spirit, sustaining a dedicated audience until the label ceased trading around 1986.

His songs continue to be recorded and performed by many singers around the world. McCauley's nephew Paul McCauley recorded several of his songs and performed them during his solo shows in the late 1990s. Paul commented at the time how surprised he was that so many people throughout the country were so familiar with McCauley's music, and how it impacted upon people's lives. Paul said "it really is wonderful to think that Johnny created Irish country through his love of the American country scene".

McCauley's later output includes the 1998 compilation-style album Memory Store, issued on Four Roads Music as a CD with 18 tracks. It compiles key recordings from his career, including standout songs like "5000 Miles from Sligo" and "Pretty Little Girl from Omagh," which exemplify his song writing on themes of Irish heritage and emigration. This release serves as an accessible retrospective, though it draws primarily from earlier Denver-era material. A posthumous digital reissue was released in 2020.

In his later decades, McCauley resided in a London nursing home where he passed away on 22 March 2012. He was 86.

(Edited from Irish Independent, Tower Museum Collections & Grokipedia)

George "Harmonica" Smith born 22 April1924

George "Harmonica" Smith (born Allen George Smith, April 22, 1924* – October 2, 1983) was an American electric blues harmonica player. Apart from his solo recordings, Smith is best known for his work backing both Muddy Waters and Big Mama Thornton.

George Smith was born Allen George Washington* in Helena, Arkansas, but was raised in Cairo, Illinois. At age four, he was already taking harp lessons from his mother, a guitar player and a somewhat stern taskmaster. In his early teens, he started hoboing around towns in the South and eventually wound up playing fish fries and picnics in the Mississippi Delta with Earley Woods’ country band, with Woods on fiddle and Curtis Gould on spoons.

He also worked with a gospel group in Mississippi called the Jackson Jubilee Singers. From the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Smith travelled throughout the south. He moved to Rock Island, Illinois, in 1941 and played with a group that included Francis Clay on drums. There is evidence that he was one of the first to amplify his harp. While working at the Dixie Theatre, he took an old 16mm cinema projector, extracted the amplifier/speaker, and began using this on the streets.

He moved to Chicago and began playing professionally in 1951.His influences include Larry Adler and later, Little Walter. He played in a number of bands including one with a young guitarist named Otis Rush, and later went on the road with the Muddy Waters Band after replacing Henry Strong. In 1954, he was offered a permanent job at the Orchid Room in Kansas City where, early in 1955, Joe Bihari of Modern Records (on a scouting trip) heard Smith, and signed him to Modern. These recording sessions were released under the name Little George Smith, and included "Telephone Blues" and "Blues in the Dark." The records were a success.

                                    

Smith travelled with Little Willie John and Champion Jack Dupree on one of the Universal Attractions tours. While on the tour, he recorded with Champion Jack Dupree in November of 1955 in Cincinnati, producing "Sharp Harp" and "Overhead Blues." The tour ended in Los Angeles and Smith settled down, spending the rest of his life in that city. By then rock and roll was starting to erode sales of blues records, and Smith, now a man with a growing family, was dropped by Modern. He hustled as best he could, playing the local clubs and recording for labels such as J&M, Lapel, Melker, and Caddy. Smith also adopted Rice Miller’s old trick of identity theft by billing himself under a variety stage names to get bigger crowds at gigs, including Harmonica King, Little Walter Junior and Big Walter. It proved a short-sighted choice; establishing a reputation under his real name would now be difficult.

Smith also worked with Big Mama Thornton on many shows. In 1960, Smith met producer Nat McCoy who owned the Sotoplay and Carolyn labels, and with whom he recorded ten singles under the name of George Allen. In 1966, while Muddy Waters was on the West Coast, he asked Smith to join him and they worked together for a while, recording for Spivey Records. His first album on World Pacific, A Tribute to Little Walter, was released in 1968. In 1969, Bob Thiele produced an excellent solo album of Smith on Bluesway, and later made use of Smith as a sideman for his Blues Times label, including sets with T-Bone Walker and Harmonica Slim. Smith met Rod Piazza, a young white harp player, and they formed the Southside Blues Band. 

In 1970 British producer Mike Vernon met the band, signed them to a European tour, and changed their name to Bacon Fat. They recorded a couple of albums for Vernon, but Smith still could not import his overseas success to Los Angeles and the group continued to struggle at home. The decade also saw a decline in his health as a heart condition worsened.

George Smith & William Clarke

He was less active in the '70s, appearing with Eddie Taylor and Big Mama Thornton. Around 1977, Smith became friends with William Clarke and they began gigging together. Boogie’n With George, Smith’s final recordings, were made with Rod Piazza in 1982. Their working relationship and friendship continued until Smith died of heart failure at the LAC-USC Medical Centre in Los Angeles, California, on October 2, 1983. Partly by luck, and partly by his own doing, he was underappreciated for many years, but recent reissues of his work will hopefully gain him his rightful place in the blues harp Pantheon.

(Edited from AllMusic, Masters of the Blues Harp & Wikipedia) (* according to Wirz Blues Discographies, he was born Allen George Washington on 5th April 1921)

Clara Ward born 21 April 1924

Clara Mae Ward (April 21, 1924 – January 16, 1973) was an American gospel singer who achieved great artistic and commercial success during the 1940s and 1950s, as leader of the Famous Ward Singers.

Born in Philadelphia, Ward was unquestionably the driving creative force behind her group's success, but the business smarts belonged to her mother, Gertrude Mae Murphy Ward. The textbook stage mother, Gertrude and her husband relocated to the Philadelphia area from a life of abject poverty in rural South Carolina; the family struggled throughout the Depression, but in 1931 she was struck by a vision which commanded her to begin a singing career. Forming a family group which included Clara and her sister Willa on piano, Gertrude quickly emerged among the most forceful promoters in all of gospel -- a gifted vocalist in her own right, her truest talents were nonetheless of an entrepreneurial nature, and after a transcendent performance at the 1943 National Baptist Convention, the Ward Singers were one of the top attractions on the church circuit.

                                   

The Wards' success, however, did not come without a price, as Clara, the star of the group, later admitted to constant frustrations with her life as a teen phenomenon, and although she loved gospel, it appears unlikely that she would have pursued a singing career if not for the constant pressure applied by her mother. By the late '40s, the group had grown so successful that they added a pair of new members, Henrietta Waddy and Marion Williams, a Miami teen whose powerhouse voice became the Wards' trademark. With Williams installed as soloist, the Wards hit their creative peak, issuing such masterful hits as "Surely God Is Able" and "Packin' Up." For her part, Clara remained content to remain somewhat in the background, accompanying the group on piano while Williams stole the spotlight.

While her gorgeous alto was the centrepiece of hits like "How I Got Over," arguably Ward's greatest strength was as an arranger; "Surely," the group's biggest hit, even introduced a new waltz rhythm into the gospel lexicon. The Wards -- who by now also included Frances Steadman and Kitty Parham -- were also the first gospel group to employ the switch-lead style of the shouting quartets, always keeping at least four vocalists in their ranks at all times. The consensus pick as the best hymn singers in the business, the Wards also rejected the homespun choir robes of the past in favour of elaborate costumes -- according to legend, on one occasion their infamous wigs grew so tall that they actually touched the ceiling. Throughout the '50s, they were among gospel's elite, scoring more hits and making more money than any group before them.

During the early '50s, the Wards began regularly touring with the Reverend C.L. Franklin of Detroit; the father of Aretha Franklin, who was a gifted singer and preacher in his own right, and as his star rose, the group's fame continued to grow. However, in 1958, Williams quit, and the bottom fell out -- Parham and Steadman exited as well, all over their notoriously low salaries, and although new recruits including Thelma Jackson, Carrie Williams, and Jessie Tucker were quickly brought in, the Wards' popularity decreased. But by 1961, amid considerable hoopla, they moved to the club circuit, playing Las Vegas and even Disneyland, all to the shock of gospel traditionalists; white audiences were intrigued, and the group continued touring throughout the '60s

Ward was the first gospel singer to sing with a 100-piece symphony orchestra in the 1960s. The Clara Ward Singers recorded an album together on the Verve label, V-5019, The Heart, the Faith, the Soul of Clara Ward, and the Ward Singers performed their music live in Philadelphia with the city's Symphony and the Golden Voices Ensemble. Ward sang backup for pop artists with her sister Willa's background group, most notably on Dee Dee Sharp's hit, "Mashed Potato Time", which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962. In 1969, Ward recorded an album for Capitol Records, Soul and Inspiration, consisting of pop songs from Broadway plays, Hollywood movies and the Jimmy Radcliffe song of hope "If You Wanna Change the World". The album was later reissued on the Capitol's budget Pickwick label minus one track. In the same year, she recorded an album in Copenhagen, Denmark on the Philips label, Walk A Mile In My Shoes, which included the pop title song, other pop songs (such as "California Dreaming") and a few gospel songs.

Ward also recorded an album for MGM/Verve, Hang Your Tears Out To Dry, which included country and Western, blues/folk, pop and an arrangement of the Beatles' hit song, "Help". Her 1972 album Uplifting on United Artists, produced by Nikolas Venet and Sam Alexander, included an interpretation of Bill Wither's pop hit "Lean On Me" and a rearrangement of the Soul Stirrers' 1950s recording of "Thank You, Jesus". Also in 1972 Ward, because she was under exclusive contract to United Artists at this time, provided vocals for a Canned Heat's album The New Age, on the ballad "Lookin' For My Rainbow"; it was released on that album and as a single 45 rpm record.

In 1968, the Clara Ward Singers toured Vietnam at the request of the U.S. State Department and the U.S.O. It was a popular war-time tour supported by recorded radio broadcasts of the Ward Singers on U.S. Armed Forces Radio. The Ward Singers narrowly missed death when their hotel in Vietnam was bombed and several guests died. Ward was invited back to Vietnam by U.S.O. in 1969 for several more months. These war-time tours were filmed and all the Ward Singers were given special certificates of recognition by the U.S. Army.

The Clara Ward Singers toured in Australia, Japan, Europe, Indonesia, and Thailand during the late-1960s through the early-1970s. They had a one-day TV special in London, England. They were in constant demand on American television programs and appeared on The Mike Douglas Show over a dozen times. They appeared on Oral Roberts' Country Roads TV special, later released as a soundtrack album. In 1969, The Clara Ward Singers appeared on the Monkees' television special. Clara continued to perform at her mother's church, the Miracle Temple of Faith for All People in Los Angeles, California, as well as at Victory Baptist Church. Her mother, Gertrude Ward, also had a popular religious radio program in the Los Angeles market.

Ward collapsed while performing at the Castaways Lounge in Miami Beach, Florida in May 1966 and suffered a series of strokes prior to her death. The first occurred in August 1967 which was listed as "massive". Two more strokes followed: one listed as "minor" during a recording session at her home in December 1972; another on January 9, 1973, which left Ward in a coma. Ward died on January 16, 1973 at age 48 as a result of several strokes. Aretha Franklin and Rev. C. L. Franklin sang at her funeral in Philadelphia; Marion Williams sang at her second memorial service held days later in Los Angeles. She is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

In 1977, Ward was honoured posthumously at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City and her surviving sister, Willa, accepted the award in her honour.

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia) 

Mort Weiss born 20 April 1945

Mort Weiss (April 20, 1935 – October 13, 2021) was a bebop-oriented clarinet player with ten albums as leader to date. Mort’s playing style has been compared to such diverse entities as Jackson Pollack and Paul Desmond. His natural musical talent combine with his facility on the clarinet to produce his very own unique style.

Mort was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, and when he was nine, he was given an uncle’s metal clarinet and started taking lessons. After moving with his family to Los Angeles, he continued playing classical music, and during his teens studied with the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra's esteemed clarinettist, Antonio Remondi. After graduation and a year at the Westlake School of Music, the precocious teenaged Weiss soloed on several T.V. programs with the Freddie Martin Orchestra, a.k.a. "The Band of Tomorrow." Weiss' exposure to jazz began with Dixieland. But, when he first heard a Charlie Parker record, that was when he was hooked.

It was while he was in high school that Mort was introduced to jazz, and it quickly became his major interest. He stood in back alleys by open kitchen doors listening to Miles, Dexter, Buddy, Getz and all the others. He learned the blues from “Senator” Gene Wright, well-known bassist, visited jazz clubs and played in after-hours jam sessions whenever chance presented itself. Practicing 8 to 10 hours a day and playing with other aspiring jazz musicians kept him busy. At age 19, Mort was drafted into the Army and played in the Army Band. It was during his tour of duty that he learned the tenor saxophone and started gigging in R&B bands in and around Kansas City, Kansas, forming his own group after his discharge. In 1959 he recorded saxophone for the first and only time—on Eden Ahbez's composition “Wild Boy” (Sierra Records). It has since become a cult item having been compiled on half-a-dozen albums of early rock 'n' roll and novelty tunes. He toured the mid-west, Las Vegas and Los Angeles with his band, playing mostly R&B and Rock & Roll on the tenor sax. In 1965, he stopped playing, tired of his life-style and the music he had to play in order to make a living.

                       Here's "Bernies Tune" from above album

                                     

 Mort began working at a music store. He eventually became District Manager for the company's chain, and in 14 years opened his own store, The Sheet Music Shoppe, in Santa Ana. Under Weiss' direction, The Sheet Music Shoppe grew into the largest purveyor of printed music in Southern California. But Mort has a major natural talent for jazz and a great love for the clarinet. An acquaintance remembers that he never saw Mort without his clarinet case in his hand. He practiced continuously, even practicing clarinet on breaks during gigs when he was playing tenor sax. His talent and the results of his hard work have remained with him.

Although getting back into playing jazz had been a long-time dream for Mort, a flyer from a nearby college “Do you want to Play Jazz??”, recruiting players for a jazz combo, enticed him to get his clarinet out of the case and begin practicing. That was in July 2001. By October Mort had met Ron Eschete’ and the two had started playing together on a regular basis. In December, his first Jazz CD was out on his own SMS label. A double CD album “No Place To Hide” consisting of 19 songs was released in April 2002 with Ron Eschete’ playing a 7 string guitar and Mort Weiss on clarinet, a rare combination.

Between 2003 and 2015, SMS Jazz produced ten more recordings featuring Weiss and talented musicians such as Joey DeFrancisco, Ramon Banda, Dave Carpenter, Roy McCurdy, Luther Hughes, and Sam Most. Weiss' release of I'll Be Seeing You (SMS Jazz, 2012), is a quartet affair, featuring drummer Roy McCurdy, bassist Chris Conner and percussionist Ramon Banda. It is a modified clarinet trio related in spirit to Sonny Rollins' famous trios of the late 1950s. Lacking a harmony instrument, pressure is placed on Weiss and Conner to infer the harmonic structures usually provided by the piano or guitar. Weiss considered I'll Be Seeing You to contain his most fully-realized playing.

His last album  from 2015, Mort Weiss Is a Jazz Reality Show was deemed by critics to have been his best recording to date, which shows a man truly at one with himself, the world and the music.

Weiss died October 13, 2021, in Woodbridge, Virginia, from a heart failure, at the age of 86.

(Edited from Wikipedia & SMS Jazz) 

Bobby Russell born 19 April 1940

Bobby Russell (April 19, 1940 – November 19, 1992) was an American singer and songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, he had five singles on the Hot Country Songs charts, including the crossover pop hit "Saturday Morning Confusion". Russell was married to singer and actress Vicki Lawrence from 1972 to 1974.

Robert L. Russell was born in Nashville Tennessee. There's not much information regarding his early years but he was raised in the days when the Tennessee capital was taking steps towards becoming Music City. His roots and leanings were in country but he would wisely lend his composing talents which were very adaptable to the pop market in the 1960s. He first hit the nation’s Hot 100 with a rather obscure song by Jan and Dean, “Tennessee” but it would take four years for Russell to enter the Top 20 which he did with a song recorded by Gary Lewis and the Playboys, “Sure Gonna Miss Her”.

                                 

 Russell's best-known songs were lyric-heavy, with lines that seem artfully torn from conversation. Two of those songs ruled the radio in 1968, the year Bobby Goldsboro had a five-week pop #1 and three-week country #1 with "Honey." The hit song inspired numerous cover versions, as did another Russell-penned hit, "Little Green Apples."

"Little Green Apples", won the Song of the Year Grammy Award in 1968. It was originally recorded and released by Roger Miller, who had the first Top 40 hit with the song. It was also a hit for O.C. Smith and Patti Page in the US in 1968. The song was a particular favourite of Frank Sinatra. Russell also wrote the song "Honey", which was a hit for Bobby Goldsboro in 1968, spending five weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Russell wrote the ballad "Do You Know Who I Am", which was recorded by Elvis Presley during his 1969 Memphis sessions. Russell penned "The Joker Went Wild", a Billboard Top 40 hit for Brian Hyland in 1966. Russell also wrote "Anabell of Mobile" for Nancy Sinatra. The Russell composition "Camp Werthahekahwee", an ode to summer camps sung by a father to his son, appeared on a 1986 album by Ray Stevens. The name of the camp is pronounced "where the heck are we?"

Bobby with Vicki Lawrence

Russell had modest success as a solo recording artist, reaching the pop Top 40 with a whimsical look at domesticity called "1432 Franklin Pike Circle Hero," and again with another glimpse of suburbia called "Saturday Morning Confusion," a top 25 country hit and No. 28 pop hit in the early fall of 1971.The song was a first-person account of a family man suffering from a hangover and trying to find peace and quiet to sleep it off, but constantly being henpecked by the kids, wife and neighbours. But his next indelible hit would come in 1972 when his actress wife, Vicki Lawrence, recorded "The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia," a pulsing tale of Southern injustice. Lawrence sang the demo of the song in hopes of placing it with another artist, but Cher and others turned it down. Lawrence went on to record a studio-polished version, and it became another cross-format hit. Also penned and sung by Russell was 1974's "Go Chase Your Rainbow", his highest-charting entry in Australia.

Other songs that Russell recorded were "Better Homes and Gardens", "1432 Franklin Pike Circle Hero", "For a While We Helped Each Other Out", "Our Love Will Rise Again", "How You Gonna Stand It", and "Mid American Manufacturing Tycoon". He also wrote and recorded "Summer Sweet" for the Disney live-action Rascal in 1969 and wrote and sang the title song "As Far as I'm Concerned" over the opening credits of The Grasshopper. He continued writing songs throughout the '80.

Russell died in Nicholasville, Kentucky, of coronary artery disease on November 19, 1992. He was 52 years old. He was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.

(Edited from Wikipedia & Nashville Songwriters Foundation)

Hal Galper born 18 April 1938

Harold Galper (April 18, 1938 – July 18, 2025) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, educator, and writer.

Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Galper first began taking piano lessons at age six. A gifted performer, he entered Berklee School of Music in Boston from 1955 to 1958, honing his skills by studying with noted pianist and teacher Madame Chaloff. During college, he hit the jazz clubs, playing with such luminaries as Sam Rivers, Herb Pomeroy, and Jaki Byard. He also garnered his own gigs, working as the house pianist at such Boston venues as The Stables, Connelly's, and Lennie's on the Turnpike. After graduating, he launched his professional career, touring and recording for three years with iconic trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker. From there, he also played with such luminaries as Joe Henderson, Cannonball Adderley, and others .He also accompanied vocalists Joe Williams, Anita O'Day, and Chris Connor.

By the '70s, Galper had begun to embrace an expansive soul-jazz and fusion sound, a style he showcased on two 1971 recordings for Mainstream Records, "The Guerilla Band and Wild Bird," both of which featured trumpeter Randy Brecker and his brother, saxophonist Michael Brecker. A third Mainstream session, the trio date Inner Journey, followed in 1972 and found Galper returning to a more acoustic sound. He played with Stan Getz for a year starting in 1972, and in 1973, he played electric piano in Cannonball Adderley's Quintet, but he quickly became dissatisfied with the instrument. He replaced George Duke and stayed with Adderley until 1975. 

                         Here's "Yellow Days" from above LP

                                

He then joined saxophonist Lee Konitz for the straight-ahead duo session "Windows". Galper's follow-up as leader, 1976's Reach Out, reunited him with the Brecker Brothers for a fiery and searching post-bop set. Along with several more sessions with the Breckers, he rounded out the decade by recording two albums with John Scofield for the Enja label in 1978-79, the first led by Scofield, and the second led by himself.

The '80s were also a busy time for Galper, who recorded again with Baker. He worked steadily with Phil Woods for much of the decade, appearing on 14 of the saxophonist's albums. Consequently, his own output slowed somewhat, though he did deliver several highly regarded efforts like 1982's Naturally with bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Victor Lewis, 1986's Dreamsville, and 1987's Time to Remember. After releasing his 1989 trio album Portrait, he decided to return to more regular solo work. Galper left the Woods group in August 1990 to tour and record with a trio with Steve Ellington on drums.

From 1990 to 1999, his group was on the road six months a year. Galper's output increased steadily and he recorded for such labels as Concord, Enja, and Philology with albums like 1992's Tippin', 1995's Rebop, and 1999's Let's Call This That.

Along with performing, Galper has worked as an educator and helped found New York's New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music. He also taught at Purchase University until 2014. He also authored a highly regarded theory textbook, Forward Motion. His theoretical and practical articles appeared in six of Down Beat editions. His scholarly article on the psychology of stage fright, originally published in the Jazz Educators Journal, has subsequently been reprinted in four other publications.

During these years, he remained active, recording a handful of trio albums including 2007's Agents of Change with bassist Tony Marino and drummer Billy Mintz, 2009's Art-Work with former John Coltrane bandmates bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Rashid Ali, and 2012's Airegin Revisited with bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop. In 2018, Galper delivered Cubist, a quartet date featuring saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. A concert album, The Zone: Live at the Yardbird Suite, appeared the following year and found the pianist leading his trio. It proved to be one of his last major projects.

In his final years, Galper continued to perform locally in upstate New York, notably with drummer Billy Mintz and bassist Tony Marino at Rafter’s Tavern in Sullivan County, where he continued to “explore his roots and learn something new every day.” In November 2024, he announced a hiatus from performing to focus on writing.

Hal Galper died in Cochecton, New York, on July 18, 2025 at the age of 87.

(Edited from AllMusic, Wikipedia, New Grove Jazz Dictionary & Hal Galper's website)  

Don Winters born 17 April 1929

Don Winters (April 17, 1929 - August 17, 2002) was an American country singer and songwriter.

Don Winters was born in 1929 in Tampa, Florida, he was raised mostly in South Georgia, he was the son of entertainer "Pop" Winters who headed "The Southern Strollers." Don began performing with them in the late 40s but moved to Nashville in the 50s and recorded on Decca and RCA labels. He recorded a few duets with his sister Rita Marie Winters, who was born on August 15, 1932 and chose the stage name Rita Robbins, with whom she had already participated in Nita, Rita & Ruby. The stage name Rita Robbins has no personal connection to Marty Robbins. 

Don was a gifted vocalist, noted especially for his yodeling and long wind. He began recording for RCA Victor in 1953 with his sister Rita. Then from 1956 - 1966 he recorded for various labels which included Coin (1956) Columbia (1957) Decca (1960) Brunswick (1961-62) Hamilton, Sims (1963) Ashley, Robbins (1966).  

                                   

His solo efforts included his 1961 top-ten single of "Too Many Times" and another favourite,  "Shake Hands With A Loser. Around 1960 he joined Marty Robbins' band as a singer and guitar player. With Bobby Sykes the three were known as "The Marty Robbins Trio" and performed with Marty Robbins. During his 23 years with Marty, he was part of the band and a featured solo artist in his shows.

Most internet sources credit them as being in the recording sessions for Columbia Records from spring 1960 to Dec. 1964 although, however it is well known that Marty Robbin's producers Don Law and Frank Jones mainly used session staff from the Nashville A-Team. Strangely both Winters and Sykes are not mentioned in Marty's recording sessions except for two in 1960. in the early '70s he had a brief side career recording several albums of country covers and generic tribute albums along with the studio band, The Country Ramblers.

Don Winters, Bobby Sykes and Marty Robbins

Meanwhile he was a devoted and loyal friend to Marty Robbins, accompanying him to races and public appearances until his death in 1982. Later, in an interview with Swampland, reporter Michael Buffalo Smith asked him that as well as touring with Robbins if he also recorded with him. Winters replied " Oh yes. I did the background vocals on a lot of songs like “El Paso City” and “Devil Woman.” Not the original “El Paso City,” we re-recorded it."   

Winters recorded the album "The Yodeling King" with his sons Donnie and Dennis, The Winters Brothers Band in 1984 , and also did a few shows with them. His last last performance was with his sons on June 15, 2002, a few months later he passed away at his home in Nolensville, Tennessee on August 17, 2002. He was first diagnosed with colon cancer in 1994 from which he recovered, but died after a year's struggle with liver cancer. He is buried in Nolensville Cemetery in Nolensville, Tennessee, USA.

(Scant information edited from IMDB, Rock'n'Roll Records Forum & Rocky 52)