Norman Wade born 2 March 1946

Norman Wade (March, 2, 1946 – December, 2021) was an American Country singer and songwriter. 

Norman Wade has been a country music cult hero to thousands of fans throughout the world, yet little is known of Wade’s early years, except that he was born Norman Robert Stevenson in Columbus, Georgia, USA., and developed an interest in country music as a child. He was particularly attracted to the music of Hank Williams.

 As a teenager he learnt to play the guitar and lived and worked in Louisiana. Whilst employed at the local Winn Dixie Store he helped to open other stores in Lafayette, Morgan City, New Iberia and New Orleans. At night he would pick and sing country songs in the few night spots that hadn’t given way to rock & roll music at that time.   

                                    

In 1959, he relocated to Nashville where he first encountered Marty Robbins playing a steel guitar in an Opry dressing room, but at the time didn’t know who he was. Wade answered Marty’s inquiries by saying that he had come to Nashville to write songs and was staying at the YMCA. Marty, who became Wade’s biggest influence, offered him a job that led to his working for the star for the next 15 years, including appearances with him on the Grand Ole Opry (Robbins later even played dobro on some tracks on Wade’s Pure Country). 

Wade first recorded in 1959, and cut a number of singles over the years before "going solo" in the '70s, when he started to record albums of his own.It was in 1978 that he achieved minor success with ‘Close Every Honky Tonk’. Although he continued to record and achieved some local chart successes, his only Billboard entry was a 1979 recording of Hank Williams’ ‘I’m A Long Gone Daddy’. 

The initial response to his career started off in the Deep South. Like an established superstar, folks hearing him for the first time started calling the radio stations to hear more of his records, and they would pack the night clubs to see and hear him perform.  Wade had written many songs and excelled at recording honky-tonk numbers. He played in all parts of the United States and also at the Opry in his own right. In 1984, he was honoured with lifetime membership of the Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Festival in Meridian, Mississippi. 

He remained active but, like Vernon Oxford, his ability to sing in the style of Hank Williams and his love for the down-home country sound of fiddle and steel guitar meant that he was probably born 10 years too late to gain the proper acclaim his ability merits. 

According to Praguefrank’ s Country Music Discographies Norman Wade died  during December 2021. 

(Edited from scant information from All Muisc and LP liner notes)

Here's a short clip of Norman from You Tube.