Tammi Terrell born 29 April 1945

Tammi Terrell (April 29, 1945 – March 16, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter, widely known as a star singer for Motown Records during the 1960s, notably for a series of duets with singer Marvin Gaye. 

She was born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery in Philadelphia to Jennie, née Graham, and Thomas Montgomery. Jennie was an actress and Thomas was a barbershop owner and local politician. Terrell was the older of two siblings. According to her sister Ludie, she said her parents thought Terrell would be a boy and, therefore, she would be named after her father. When Terrell was born, the parents settled on the name Thomasina, nicknaming her "Tommie". At the age of 11 she won a talent contest.  Terrell later changed it to "Tammy" after seeing the film Tammy and the Bachelor and hearing its theme song, "Tammy", at the age of 12. 

Terrell attended Germantown High School in Philadelphia and by the age of 13 she was regularly opening club dates for acts including Gary "U.S." Bonds and Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles. In 1960, Terrell signed under the Wand subsidiary of Scepter Records after being discovered by Luther Dixon. She recording the ballad "If You See Bill" under the name Tammy Montgomery, and did demos for the Shirelles. After another single, Terrell left the label. 

Having been introduced to James Brown, she signed a contract with him and began singing backup for his Revue concert tours. In 1961, Terrell created the group the Sherrys. In late 1962, she was kicked out due to multiple disputes. Eventually, they went their separate ways, with the Sherrys moving on without Terrell. 

In 1963, she recorded the song "I Cried". Released on Brown's Try Me Records, it became her first charting single, reaching No. 99 on the Billboard Hot 100. Terrell later signed with Checker Records and released the Bert Berns-produced "If I Would Marry You", a duet with Jimmy Radcliffe, which Terrell co-composed. Following this relative failure, Terrell announced a semi-retirement from the music business. 

                                    

Terrell enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in pre-med, staying at the school for two years. In the middle of this, Terrell was asked by Jerry Butler to sing with him in a series of shows in nightclubs. After Butler arranged to assure Terrell that she could continue her schooling, she began touring with Butler. In April 1965, during a performance at the Twenty Grand Club in Detroit, she was spotted by Motown CEO Berry Gordy, who promised to sign her to Motown. 

Terrell with Sam Cooke & Betty Harris

Terrell agreed and signed with Motown on April 29, 1965, her 20th birthday. "I Can't Believe You Love Me" became Terrell's first R&B top 40 single, followed almost immediately by "Come On and See Me". In 1966, Terrell recorded two future classics, Stevie Wonder's "All I Do (Is Think About You)" and The Isley Brothers' "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)". After the release of her first single on Motown, Terrell joined the Motortown Revue opening for the Temptations. 

Terrell was then paired with Marvin Gaye, who previously recorded duets with Mary Wells and Kim Weston. His chemistry with Terrell was immediate and in 1967, they entered the pop Top 20 with the magnificent "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," the first in a series of lush, sensual hits authored by the husband-and-wife team of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. "Your Precious Love" cracked the Top Five a few months later and in 1968, the twosome topped the R&B charts with both "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By." The success of these later hits was nevertheless tempered by Terrell's off-stage travails -- after an extended period of severe migraine headaches, in 1967 she collapsed in Gaye's arms while in concert at Virginia's Hampton-Sydney College, and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. 

Although the tumor forced Terrell to retire from performing live, she continued to record with Gaye even as her health deteriorated; however, as time went on, Valerie Simpson herself assumed uncredited vocal duties on a number of hits, including 1969's "Good Lovin' Ain't Easy to Come By" and "What You Gave Me." (For several other tracks, Gaye's vocals were added to pre-existing Terrell solo recordings.) 

In all, Terrell endured eight operations, ultimately resulting in loss of memory and partial paralysis; she finally died in Philadelphia on March 16, 1970. Gaye was so devastated by her decline and eventual passing that he retired from the road for three years; her loss also contributed greatly to the spiritual turmoil which informed his 1971 masterpiece What's Going On. At the time of her death, Tammi Terrell was just 24 years old. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

 

Phil Guy born 28 April 1940

Phil Guy (April 28, 1940 – August 20, 2008) was an American blues guitarist. He was the younger brother of blues guitarist Buddy Guy. Phil and Buddy Guy were frequent collaborators and contribute both guitar and vocal performances on many of each other's albums. 

Philip Guy was born at Lettsworth, near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the youngest of five children of sharecroppers. As a boy he picked cotton and pecan nuts and helped raise pigs and chickens around the family's shack, which was fitted with electricity only when he was nine. When Buddy moved to Baton Rouge to attend high school, he left his battered Harmony f-hole guitar hanging from a nail, ordering his younger brother never to touch it – an injunction which Phil was unable to respect. 

A natural left-hander, he initially played the instrument upside down, but later taught himself to play right-handed. Thanks to the arrival of electricity, his parents had been able to install an old phonograph, and he began mimicking the music of bluesmen such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Howlin' Wolf. On Buddy's occasional trips home he would help Phil develop his skills, and it wasn't long before Phil was able to take Buddy's place in Raful Neal's blues band. He stayed with Neal for almost a decade before striking out on his own, settling in Chicago. Four years younger than Buddy, Phil Guy created his own style, mingling the Cajun music of his native Louisiana with Mississippi Delta blues, jazz and soul to produce his own brand of blues; this was understated and unflashy, in contrast to the elder brother's flamboyant style. 

He joined Buddy's band just before they embarked on a tour of Africa in 1970 and stayed with them for five years until Buddy, angered and frustrated at his inability to secure a record contract, retired from touring (albeit, as it turned out, temporarily). Phil managed to do what Buddy couldn't--get a record contract--and that year he recorded "The High Energy Blues" for JSP Records, and soon afterward began his own band, Phil Guy and the Chicago Machine. 

To underline his own identity, Phil, who looked like a chubbier version of the late comedian Richard Pryor, became known for a wild Afro hairstyle as well as for the beloved Fender Telecaster he called "Ludella". He realised early on that he would remain firmly in his brother's shadow. "There's two Guys and one's on top," he said. "If the labels can't get the Big Man, they don't want to mess with me." Nevertheless, Phil became well known in Europe. In the United States he was particularly popular in his adopted hometown of Chicago, where he performed for 40 years, often at his brother's renowned club Buddy Guy's Legends. 

                            Here’s “Tina Nu” from above album.

                                   

Guy recorded a number of albums under his own name in the 1980s and 1990s, branching out into soul and funk. Most of his albums were recorded by JSP Records, based in London. Among them was Say What You Mean (2000), which features what is perhaps his best-known song, (I'm the) Last of the Blues Singers, mourning the loss of such greats as Junior Wells and Howlin' Wolf. According to John Stedman, founder of JSP Records, Phil Guy was "one of the most impressive 'live' acts I've worked with in 30 years of legendary Americans". 

Phil Guy and the Chicago Machine toured extensively around the world, returning to Chicago for gigs in between. His favourite British venues were the 100 Club on London's Oxford Street, the Leadmill in Sheffield, and Band on the Wall in Manchester.  During August 2007, Guy and his band sold out venues in Ireland and Northern Ireland, including the Bleu Note in Dublin and the Big River Jazz and Blues Festival in Belfast. He had first played Belfast during "the Troubles" and said he found it "helluva safe compared with some of the neighbourhoods back home". 

On what turned out to be Phil Guy's final album, He's My Blues Brother (2006), Buddy joined him on vocals and guitar on the title track. Although Buddy won five Grammys and had influenced artists such as Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, it was his younger brother Phil who was named Blues Entertainer of the Year in 2007 at the 27th annual Chicago Music Awards. 

In January of 2008 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and his health quickly deteriorated. He died on August 20 of the disease at Saint James Hospital in Chicago Heights, Illinois He was 68 years old. 

(Edited from Wikipedia and The Telegraph) 

 

Cuba Gooding born 27 April 1944

Cuba Gooding (April 27, 1944 – April 20, 2017) was an American singer. He was the most successful lead singer of the soul group The Main Ingredient and also recorded as a solo artist with hits of his own.

Born in Harlem, New York City, Cuba Mark Gooding was a son of Dudley MacDonald Gooding (1890–1955) and his wife Addie Alston. The elder Gooding was a native of Barbados who fled the island in 1936 to Cuba, and met and married a woman there. When she was murdered because of their affiliation with Pan Africanist leader Marcus Garvey, Dudley Gooding promised his wife on her deathbed that he would name his first son Cuba. He became a taxi driver in Manhattan, but he died when Cuba was 11 years old. 

The Main Ingredient 1974. L-R:
Luther Simmons, Cuba Gooding, Tony Silvester 

Cuba Gooding began his recording career as the lead singer of The Charades in the mid 1960s. He joined The Main Ingredient as a back-up vocalist. He became the lead singer after lead singer Donald McPherson died of leukemia in 1971. With Cuba Gooding on lead vocals, the Main Ingredient had their first million-selling single with "Everybody Plays the Fool," which hit number three pop and held the number two R&B spot for two weeks on Billboard's charts in fall 1972. The follow-up, "You've Got to Take It (If You Want It)," was included on the album Bitter Sweet, which hit number ten R&B in summer 1972. Their next LP, Afrodisiac, peaked at number 16 R&B in spring 1973. 

The Main Ingredient produced the 1974 LP Euphrates River, which included their second million-seller, a cover of Ronnie Dyson's 1973 hit "I Just Don't Want to Be Lonely" (number eight R&B, number ten pop); the sumptuous disco classic "Happiness Is Just Around the Bend," which bopped to number seven R&B; and "California My Way." Tony Sylvester left the group to become a record producer and Carl Thompkins joined the group. Rolling Down a Mountainside was the title of their 1975 LP (number three R&B, spring 1975) and of the title track single that hit number seven R&B. The "Shame on the World" single peaked at number 20 R&B, while the Shame on the World LP made it to number 27 R&B in late 1975. 

                                   

In 1977, Gooding signed as a solo artist with Motown Records. Amid much anticipation and critical raves, his solo debut, The 1st Album, produced by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter (Tavares, the Four Tops), was released in spring 1978 with only one single, "Mind Pleaser," charting number 91 R&B in spring 1978. Another Motown LP, Love Dancer, produced by Michael Lovesmith, was issued in spring 1979. 

Shirley & Cuba Gooding

Gooding moved from the Bronx to southern California in the 1970s. Gooding and his wife, singer Shirley Gooding (née Sullivan) had four children: actors Cuba Gooding Jr., Omar Gooding, actress April Gooding and musician Tommy Gooding. Gooding Sr. later became a minor actor himself. He separated from his wife in 1974 but in 1995, they remarried. 

In 1980, Gooding returned to The Main Ingredient and made two more albums for RCA Victor. In the summer of 1984 Cuba Gooding released a song called "I've Got The Hots (for you), which was a disco/funk song. His biggest international success was Brian Auger's "Happiness Is Just Around the Bend" in 1983, which has in recent times been sampled by several R&B artists, as well as hitting the charts again as a remix by UK Hardcore Rave group Altern-8 in 1991. He was also developing a film project called Everybody Plays the Fool: The Cuba Gooding Story. The film highlights three generations of the Gooding Family: Dudley "Cuba" Gooding, Cuba Gooding Sr., Cuba Gooding Jr. and Omar Gooding. 

Gooding appeared on the Beach Music Super Collaboration CD, performing the Charles Wallert composition, "Meant To Be In Love". This led to the duo's project, “Never Give Up” (Bluewater Recordings), which debuted at the 2009 presidential inauguration. In 2011, he had a residence in Rosarito Beach, Mexico where he performed at least one charity concert. He also had a residence in Flagler Beach, Florida. 

On April 20, 2017, one week before his 73rd birthday, Gooding was found dead in his silver Jaguar while parked on a street in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. CPR was performed by the fire department but they were unable to revive him. 

An autopsy determined he died of Hypertensive and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease, which is defined as a hardening and narrowing of the arteries, often leading to heart attack and/or stroke. He is interred at the Trinity Church Cemetery in Manhattan. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic &IMDb)

 

Jørgen Ingmann born 26 April 1925

Jørgen Ingmann (26 April 1925 – 21 March 2015) was a Danish jazz and pop guitarist from Copenhagen. He was popular in Europe and had a wider international hit in 1961 with his version of "Apache". He and his wife Grethe Ingmann won the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Dansevise". Although virtually unknown in Britain, he sold hundreds of thousands of records in mainland Europe, Scandinavia, the US, Canada, and the Far East. 

Jørgen Ingmann Pedersen was born in Copenhagen, and as a young man still in his teens he became a messenger saving his pay checks to buy his first guitar.  As a child he had learned to play the violin but his passion was the guitar.  His next job was as a printing house clerk where he remained for 4 years.  During that time he would learn to play the piano. One of his early influences was Charlie Christian – an American musician – who played the electric guitar – primarily designated to provide rhythm for jazz ensembles. 

Jorgen would finally get his first guitar in 1941 along with an amplifier.  He would next form his first group the “Ingmann Quintet”.  The group were regulars playing in downtown Copenhagen.  This was in the early 1940’s. In 1944 he would join the Roger Henriksen Orchestra playing in the village of Randers.  1945 would be a big turning point in his career when he became a member of Svend Asmussen’s  backing group,  Svend being crowned the “Fiddling Viking”.  Svend provided Jorgen with the opportunity to record his first record with “How I’m Doing, Hey Hey” b/w “That’s My Weakness Now”. 

Ingmann’s inspiration on the guitar came from America’s pioneer Les Paul.  Like Paul, Jorgen would experiment with multi-tracking techniques, echo and special effects.  He had his own 4-track recording machine at a time when 2-track mono was predominant.  Ingmann also used half speed recording extensively in the studio. In addition to the guitar, Jorgen would overdub the bass and drums playing all the instruments and manning the controls for his echo special effects and began recording under the name Jørgen Ingmann & His Guitar. 

                                   

He would cover the hugely popular Shadows’ UK hit “Apache” taking it to number 1 in Canada and number 2 in the United States.  “Apache” even resonated with R&B radio stations reaching number 9 on the R&B national charts. He remade Silvana Mangano's "Anna" with moderate US chart success. In the first half of the 1960s he had many hits in Germany, including "Pepe" (1961 #15), "Anna" (1961 #19), "Violetta" (1962 #16), "Drina Marsch" (1964 #5) and "Zorba le Grec" (1965 #14). Billboard magazine reported that he charted at no. 2 on the Denmark pop singles chart with his recording of "Marchen Til Drina" on 7 December 1963.  His recording reached no. 1 on 17 December 1963. Other recordings of his included "Tequila" (which he also recorded during the 60s, with the Champs) and a version of Pinetop Perkins' "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" (from 1962). 

He also worked as a member of the duet, Grethe og Jørgen Ingmann, together with his wife Grethe Ingmann. After winning the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix competition in 1963, they went on to represent Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 where they won with the song "Dansevise" (Dance Ballad), music by Otto Francker and lyrics by Sejr Volmer-Sørensen. His best jazz work is to be found on the LP Guitar in Hifi which, apart from "Margie", the first track, has many songs written by Hoagy Carmichael. It was issued in England on a 10-inch LP and in other places as a 12-inch LP. In the USA it was called Jorgan Ingmann Swings Softly. 

Besides releasing his own recordings, his orchestra Jørgen Ingmann's Orkester backed a number of contemporary Danish artists in the 1950s and early 1960s. He and Grethe met in 1955, married in 1956, and divorced in 1975. Jorgen continued to perform as a soloist. Ingmann was never fond of appearing live solo but much preferred working in the studio.  His final appearances were a disappointment for him, attending festivals in 1984 standing in the back of track and playing his familiar tunes from a tape recorder!  By 1985 he sold all of his guitars and equipment and would never record or perform again. 

Jørgen had a short two year marriage to Gitte Heide from 1979, but according to close friend and musician Laif Møller Lauridsen, the divorce from Grethe was devastating for him and he turned to drink for solace. Eventually they both reunited in 1984 but as close friends, as Gerthe had married advertising executive Bo Augustinusin in 1977. She died 18 August 1990 from cancer, age 52. In 2003 a biography about Jørgen Ingmann by Henrik Kristoffersen was published. 

Jørgen Ingmann died in Holte, Denmark, on 21 March 2015, aged 89. 

(Edited from Wikipedia. AllMusic, kimsloans & Eurovisionary) 

 

Vassar Clements born 25 April 1928

Vassar Carlton Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005) was an American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and bluegrass along with roots also in country and other musical traditions. 

Clements was born in Kinard, Florida and grew up in Kissimmee. He taught himself to play the fiddle at age 7, learning "There's an Old Spinning Wheel in the Parlor" as his first song. Soon, he joined with two first cousins, Red and Gerald, to form a local string band. In his early teens Clements met Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys when they came to Florida to visit Clements' stepfather, a friend of fiddler Chubby Wise. Clements was impressed with his playing. 

In late 1949, Wise left Monroe's group, and the 21 year-old Clements traveled by bus to ask for an audition. When told he would have to return the next day, Clements was crestfallen, lacking the money for either a hotel room or return bus trip. Monroe gave him some money to a night's lodging, and the next day Clements auditioned and was hired. He remained with Monroe for seven years, recording with the band in 1950 and 1951. 

Between 1957 and 1962, he was a member of the bluegrass band Jim and Jesse & the Virginia Boys. He also gained recognition joining with the popular bluegrass duo of Flatt and Scruggs on the popular theme to the hit television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. Earl Scruggs' path-breaking banjo style had premiered with Bill Monroe in the late 1940s, and thereafter gained widespread renown with Lester Flatt and the Foggy Mountain Boys. 

By the mid-1960s, however, his struggles with alcohol left him making his living in blue-collar trades, being employed briefly at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a plumber, in a Georgia paper mill, and as switchman for Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. He even sold insurance and once operated a convenience store while owning a potato chip franchise in Huntsville, Alabama. Sobering up, he returned to Nashville in 1967, where he became a much sought-after studio musician. 

                                  

After a brief touring stint with Faron Young he joined John Hartford's Dobrolic Plectral Society in 1971, when he met guitarist Norman Blake and Dobro player Tut Taylor, and recorded Aereo-Plain, a widely acclaimed "newgrass" album that helped broaden the bluegrass market and sound. After less than a year he joined up with Earl Scruggs. His 1972 work with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album Will the Circle be Unbroken earned even wider acclaim, and he later worked on the Grateful Dead's Wake of the Flood and Jimmy Buffett's A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean. 

Within the next two years, Clements would cut his first solo album, (although an album was released under his name in 1970 of some session tracks with country band). In 1973, he joined and toured with the bluegrass supergroup Old & In the Way with Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Peter Rowan, and John Kahn; their self-titled live album Old & In the Way was released in 1975. In 1974 he lent his talents to Highway Call, a solo album by former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts. 

In his 50-year career he played with artists ranging from Woody Herman and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to the Grateful Dead, Linda Ronstadt, and Paul McCartney, and earned at least five Grammy Award nominations and numerous professional accolades. He once recorded with the pop group the Monkees by happenstance, when he stayed behind after an earlier recording session. He also appeared in Robert Altman's 1975 film Nashville and Alan Rudolph's 1976 film, Welcome to L.A.. He made a duet album with Stéphane Grappelli Together at Last in 1987. 

In 2004, he performed in concert with jazz quartet Third Stream – in which a video documentary of the concert was done with Jim Easton (guitar), Tom Strohman (sax), Jim Miller (bass), and John Peifer (drums). His 2005 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance was for "Earl's Breakdown," by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and featured Clements, Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, and Jerry Douglas. 

Vassar Clements played on over 200 albums, including nearly 40 on which he starred or was featured. His albums often featured newgrass style music and what Clements called "Hillbilly Jazz". His last album, Livin' With the Blues, released in 2004, was his only blues recording; it featured guest appearances by Elvin Bishop, Norton Buffalo, Maria Muldaur, and others. 

Clements last performance was on February 4, 2005 in Jamestown, New York., On March 11, 2005 he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died at his home August 16th, 2005. He was 77. (He was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2018.

( Edited from Wikipedia & Discogs)

 

Ross Kettle (24 April 1943- 12 October 2007) was co-founder of the The Singing Kettles, who were a country music trio from Tasmania consisting of three brothers. 

In their early days, Bill (William), Ross and Max (Maxwell) Kettle were typical Australian country boys. They were all born in Launceston Hospital. The family lived at Retreat then moved to the small town of Lilydale, Tasmania. Their singing career began at church socials and school functions. It was their local minister who christened them. One night in his introduction he said “You have all heard whistling kettles, but here now are the Singing Kettles”, and the name stuck. The Singing Kettles became one of the most well loved country and western groups that Australia has known. 

In their first few years after leaving school, the Kettles worked as timber cutters on Tasmania’s north east coast. Every day, their guitars would go with them, and during their lunch break the sounds of country harmonies would soar through the Tasmanian bush land. 1952: Bill and Ross won a talent quest on Radio 7LA Launceston. The station’s Clive Windmill made a tape of the Singing Kettles and played it on his western show every afternoon. 

                                   

By 1955 the boys became well known and made acetate recordings for Radio 7LA. Their first commercial recording was released in 1961. Bill and Ross were working as a duo at that time, because Max was only about 11 years old. That first record was “Judy” and it was not only the first recording by the Singing Kettles, but it was also the first release for the brand new Hadley record label, which was then based in Launceston, Tasmania. 

A string of singles, extended play and album releases followed with Max joining his brothers in 1963. The Kettles were the support act for Lorne Greene (of Bonanza fame) in 1965, and also supported prominent mainland acts visiting Tasmania. They recorded the album Country Harmony. More singles followed including the successful Toy Telephone, single and album. 

During June 1969, the trio went to Vietnam as part of an all-Tasmanian concert party. These entertainers were sent to remote locations in the Mekong Delta to entertain American troops – 9th Infantry Division and also Army of the Republic of Vietnam troops. During one of these performances the Viet Cong attacked and troops watching the show were killed. The entertainers had to jump off an area that was two storeys high, resulting in Max breaking his ankle. It was reported back to family in Tasmania that the three boys were missing in action. It took three days for the news they were found safe and well filtered through. 

After returning home, they heard of a place called Tamworth, NSW where they wanted to start up a Country Music Capital for Australia, similar to Nashville, TN. The three brothers said goodbye to their parents, packed up their families and moved to Tamworth. The Singing Kettles and Slim Dusty performed outdoors on their first show in Tamworth. After this they were offered a great deal of work to move to Sydney and perform out of Col Joye’s office at ATA. In 1969, the Singing Kettles made their big step moving to Sydney to enter the hurly burley of the club scene and by 1970 were voted #1 of the Top 10 Australian acts. 

On the 22nd January, 1971, tragedy struck the trio with the sudden death after a show in Sydney of young Max Kettle. He suffered a massive attack of asthma, an affliction which had plgued him since birth. He had celebrated his 21st birthday only a fortnight before. To a lesser act, this would have meant the end of the road, but knowing their brother’s wishes, Bill and Ross continued, and made the drastic changes necessary to turn their act into the professional duo that toured Australia for the next 17 years as well as being support acts for American and English artists which include Slim Whitman, Dave Allen and others.

The end of the Singing Kettles came in 1988. The act broke up, Ross became a solo singer, and Bill and his later wife, Kathy Thompson, worked as a duo. In 2005 The Singing Kettles were elevated to the Roll of Renown. They performed at the Roll of Renown Concert for the first time in 20 years, and were joined by Max’s son, Grady. 

Ross had a long struggle with health problems. He had bravely battled several different forms of cancer for many years and recently had a double hip replacement. He managed to record his final album, Waltz of Life before his death in Sydney on 12 September 2007. He was 64.

 

In 2017, The Singing Kettles were inducted into the Tasmanian Independent Music Awards Hall of Fame. Bill, Kathy and Will (their son) were able to attend. 

(Edited from liner notes by Eric Scott  & eHive.com)