“When I get to Heaven I'm gonna shake God's hand
Thank him for more blessings than one man can stand
Then I'm gonna get a guitar and start a Rock and Roll band
Check into a swell hotel
Ain't the 'Afterlife' grand!”

John Prine, Lyrics to When I Get To Heaven

And now John Prine has started his journey to Heaven and I am sure that he is doing exactly what he voiced in these lyrics, no doubt with his buddy and fellow Chicagoan Steve Goodman who passed away in 1984. Goodman and Prine will always be intertwined for it was when Steve was opening for Kris Kristofferson that the pieces began to fall into place. Kris was impressed with Goodman and offered to get him recording when Steve said, “You think I’m good? You need to see my friend John Prine!”

It was a tough week for country music, we lost Kenny Rogers, Jan Howard and Joe Diffie. Howard was 91, Rogers 81 and died of natural causes but  Joe Diffie only 61 years old and was taken by the Covid-19 Corona Virus.

Joe Logan Diffie was born on Dec. 28, 1958, in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Joe and Flora Diffie. His father held various jobs and later drove a tour bus for the country superstar Toby Keith; his mother was a schoolteacher and owned a flower shop. His family moved frequently before settling back in Oklahoma, where Mr. Diffie attended high school and college. As a child, he played with his aunt’s country band, and later as part of rock, gospel and bluegrass outfits.

The dealin’ is done, the gambler has left the table. Kenny Rogers, best known for his multi-genre, multi-media, the song was a radio hit and it was made into a movie, The Gambler, has passed away at age 81.

Rogers’ career spanned many decades, starting in 1966 with popular New Christie Minstrels who had a big hit with a song called “Green, Green”. In 1967 Rogers and three members of Minstrels, Mike Settle, Terry Williams and Thelma Camacho left the group to form The First Edition. The band had a string of hits, “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” a Mickey Newbury song that was rescued by this version. Jerry Lee Lewis had also cut a really bad version of it, but it suited the band and especially Rogers’s voice perfectly. The band knew how to pick songs including the Mike Settle composed “But You Know I Love You” Mel Tillis’ “Ruby (Don’t Take Your Love To Town)”, and Mac Davis’ “ Something’s Burning.”

John Mann, the driving force behind Spirit of the West, has lost his long-time battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. He succumbed on Wednesday, November 20, 2019, to the early-onset of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 57.

Mann rose to fame in the 1980s as one of the main singers and songwriters for Spirit of the West, a popular Celtic-inspired group. He was also an accomplished actor, with several film and theatre credits to his name. He was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s in 2014, and the band played its last show two years later. Though the disease was degenerative and his battle several years long, news of his death shook Spirit of the West drummer Vince Ditrich.

Pioneering Muscle Shoals musician Jerry Carrigan has moved on. Carrigan passed away on June 22nd in Chattanooga, Tennessee at age 75.

Scott Walker (born Noel Scott Engel) was an American-born British singer-songwriter, composer and record producer. Walker was known for his distinctive baritone voice and an unorthodox career path which took him from 1960s pop icon to the 21st-century avant-garde musician. Walker's success was largely in the United Kingdom, where his first three solo albums reached the top ten. He lived in the UK from 1965 and became a British citizen in 1970.

First coming to fame in the mid-1960s as the frontman of the pop music trio The Walker Brothers, Walker began a solo career with 1967's Scott, moving toward an increasingly challenging baroque pop style on late '60s albums such as Scott 3 (1969) and Scott 4 (1969).

Editor's Note: Since the writing of this article Kelly Jay has passed away. His daughter Shawna posted this on Facebook. "My mum called the big guy home to her this morning. Together forever. Dance among the stars. Sing your heart out to her (as she called you “the voice”) embrace one another and dad, kiss and hug her for me. Play the piano in front of all the angels. Watch your little girl tiff boogie the night away. RIP daddio"

Kelly Jay, Canada’s legendary band-mate of Crowbar fame has suffered a stroke which has no chance of recovery for him. His family is raising money for his funeral expenses in advance to celebrate his life at https://www.gofundme.com/kelly-jays-celebration-of-life

Please read their post here and considering donating for a rock n roll legend.

Dr. John, a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a six-time Grammy winner, died Thursday June 6, 2019 morning from a heart attack, said publicist and social media manager Karen Beninato.

Dr. John, whose real name was Malcolm John Rebennack Jr, was 77.

Beninato's post on Dr. John's Facebook page said memorial arrangements will be announced.

Dr. John "created a unique blend of music which carried his home town, New Orleans, at its heart, as it was always in his heart," she wrote.

According to the Grammy website, Dr. John began his musical career working as a songwriter and guitarist in the 1950s. He later played keyboards for Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones and Van Morrison.

He told Smithsonian.com in 2009, that in 1960, or so, he got shot in a finger when he went to defend a bandmate who was being pistol-whipped.

Submitted by Sandy Graham

During my radio days, I had the pleasure of meeting Graham Powers when he came to CJFM to promote music to me as a music director. It was at that time, I was looking for an assistant and he suggested his then girlfriend, Debbie to come work with me. I hired her and she married Graham and had a family together. That turned out to be a lifelong friendship. So it was with a heavy heart I heard the news of Graham’s passing.

Truth be known, although I had not met him yet, I was one of those teenyboppers who used to go see MG & the Escorts play in Montreal at the Bonaventure Curling Club, when that stage graced the likes of Graham’s band, along with other Montreal bands JB & the Playboys, The Rabble, Bartholomew Plus Three and hosting by then DJ Dave Boxer of CFCF. Boxer would be instrumental in breaking MG’s first singles and getting them on those shows.

Hal Blaine, the drummer for The Wrecking Crew, has passed away at the age of 90. Blaine was one of the most recorded studio drummers in the history of the music industry, having played on an estimated 35,000 sessions, 6,000 singles and on 40 number 1 hits.

Hal Blaine was actually the driving beat behind the soundtrack of our lives From the early days of Phil Spector and The Ronettes to The Byrds and The Beach Boys Hal Blaine’s creative style shaped the sound of pop music The opening drum hits on The Ronettes ‘Be My Baby’ made the song instantly recognizable. Pop legend Andy Kim said on his Facebook page “Listening to the explosive intro of ‘Be My Baby’ by The Ronettes made my transistor radio shake, and started me dreaming of what my world would be like living inside that radio. Thank you, Hal Blaine.” Blaine even played at his own 90^th birthday bash.

Peter Halsten Thorkelson better known as Peter Tork, was an American musician, composer and actor, best known as the keyboardist and bass guitarist of the Monkees. Peter Tork was the loveable wise guy of the Monkees, the popular television rock group that rocketed to stardom in the 1960s. But Peter Tork was a serious musician who pushed for the Monkees to create their own music instead of the outside musicians and songwriters the producers used when the show started. Tork wrote the song “For Pete’s Sake,” which was used for the closing credits during the Monkees second season. He continued to record and perform folk and blues music after the Monkees, releasing his latest album with his band Shoe Suede Blues in 2018.

One of the most recorded session guitarists of a generation, Reggie Young, has passed away at age 82. Young died during the evening of January 17, 2019, at his home in Leiper's Fork, Tennessee from heart failure.

He got his start in Memphis with a band called Eddie Bond and the Stompers, a rockabilly group that toured with the likes of Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins in the late ‘50s and in 1958 joined Johnny Horton’s band and played the Louisiana Hayride several times.

Kelton Dean Herston, "Kelso", 87 of Nashville Tennessee passed away peacefully on December 4, 2018.

Mr. Herston was born on April 23, 1931, in Rogersville, Alabama. He grew up in Florence, Alabama, where he developed an early love for music and the guitar. Kelso graduated from Coffee High School in Florence and attended the University of Alabama before joining the United States Air Force. While in the service, he was stationed in West Germany. During his tour of duty, he formed a band in Frankfurt, which ended up performing for the troops in the 7th Army Special Services.

Upon his return home from the service in 1956, he formed Tune Records and Publishing in Florence, with his friend James Joiner. Three years later, Sam Phillips of Sun Records in Memphis hired Kelso to open an office in Nashville, Tennessee, to run his publishing companies, Hi-Low and Knox Music. Kelso also began playing guitar on recording sessions in Nashville and soon became one of Nashville's top session players, playing on hundreds of songs.

Roy Clark has left the stage and has gone on to his next appearance, joining an illustrious group in heaven that includes Chet Atkins and his buddy Glen Campbell. The  multi-leveled entertainer died at his Tulsa, Oklahoma, home due to complications from pneumonia. Roy Linwood Clark was born April 15, 1933, in Meherrin, Virginia and was the oldest of five children. He was 85 years old.

Joshua Glass says he always loved watching his father, Arizona Blues Hall of Famer Jim Glass, play guitar.“I can honestly say those are the times that I could see the pure joy on his face,” he says. “When he was playing.”

Jim Glass died Feb. 26 after suffering a massive heart attack. He was 70.

“He had a heart attack a couple years ago,” his son recalls. “And that pretty much did a number on him. He never quite fully recovered. There were some issues in his lungs, and then he had another massive heart attack on his way to a doctor’s appointment and it was just too much.”

Michele Robins, a jazz announcer at KJZZ, met Glass in 1984.

"When I first heard Jim play,” she says, “I thought he sounded like a cross between Eric Clapton and the Allman Brothers, such a pure, sweet tone. He always told me that the sign of a great blues guitarist was less notes, not more. His passion was playing the blues and I'm so happy he was able to share this love with Arizona for such a long time. He truly was the best blues guitarist to have ever graced the Arizona music scene."

Canadian born country singer/entertainer, comedian and musician Ronnie Prophet has passed away at age 80.

Ronald Lawrence Victor Prophet, who charted 23 singles from 30 albums in a career that spanned 60 years, died with loving family and friends at his side on Friday, March 2 at age 80, following cardiac and kidney failure. Survived by his wife of 32 years, Glory Anne Carriere Prophet, sons Tony (Kitty) Prophet, Vancouver, BC, Jimmy (Emily) Prophet, Nashville, TN, stepchildren Rhonda (Bill) Paisley, Nanaimo, BC, Warren (Lesa) Carriere, Regina, SK, Tamara Greer, Estevan, SK and 12 grandchildren - Justin, Joey, Jake and Patrick Prophet, Josh and Victoria Paisley, Meagan and Stephanie Carriere, and Brooklyn, Ryan and James Greer.

His longtime friend and Agent of 38 years, Paul Mascioli commented “Ronnie was an international star who transcended all boundaries with his big heart and superb showmanship. He was a working man’s entertainer and loved by people of all ages. We’ll truly miss him but will never forget him”.

One of the finest voices in country music has left the planet at young age of 46. Daryle Singletary passed away suddenly at his home in Lebanon, Tennessee just outside of Nashville.

Singletary born in Cairo, Georgia got started early in music singing gospel songs with his brother and cousins. Moving to Nashville in 1990, he played the local nightclubs before signing with Evergreen Records in 1992. He worked as a demo singer and one of the demos that Singletary sang was "An Old Pair of Shoes", which Randy Travis eventually recorded. Travis liked what he heard and recommended Singletary to his management team, who helped him sign to a recording contract with the Irving Azoff’s Warner-distributed Giant Records.

Hugh Masekela, who has died aged 78, was one of the world’s finest and most distinctive horn players, whose performing on trumpet and flugelhorn mixed jazz with South African styles and music from across the African continent and diaspora. Exiled from his country for 30 years, he was also a powerful singer and songwriter and an angry political voice, using his music and live performances to attack the apartheid regime that had banished him from homeland.

Even when he had returned to the country of his birth under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, after having lived and worked in the US and in Botswana, Masekela continued to comment fearlessly on political events in South Africa and around the world, enjoying his status as an international celebrity, playing for presidents and royalty and concert audiences, and often collaborating with other musical greats.

Dolores O'Riordan, whose urgent, powerful voice helped make Irish rock band The Cranberries a global success in the 1990s, died suddenly on January 15, 2018, at a London hotel. She was 46.

The singer's publicist, Lindsey Holmes, confirmed she died in London, where she was recording,"No further details are available at this time," Holmes said, adding that the singer's family was "devastated" by the news. London's Metropolitan Police force said officers were called just after 9 a.m. Monday to a hotel where a woman in her 40s was found dead. The police force said the death was being treated as "unexplained."To all those who follow and support Irish music, Irish musicians, and the performing arts, her death will be a big loss," Higgins said in a statement.

O'Riordan was born on Sept. 6, 1971, in Ballybricken, southwest Ireland. In 1990, she answered an ad from a local band in nearby Limerick city — then called The Cranberry Saw Us — that was looking for a lead singer.

The Manitoba country music industry has suffered the devastating loss of artist manager Janice Starodub on New Year’s Eve at the age of 49. Janice Anne Starodub passed away peacefully at the Selkirk Regional Health Centre surrounded by her family, husband Phil and three children, after a yearlong battle with cancer.

Janice began her career as a teacher whose creativity led her to songwriting, which in turn took her to Nashville, where networking introduced her to connections within the publishing community. It was also the place where she discovered where she fit in with the music industry. Her teaching experience, can-do attitude, and patience made her an ideal fit to fill the much-needed role of advising and developing young artists, initiating imaging and media training sessions, working on grants and arranging successful songwriting trips and showcases in LA, Nashville, and domestically.