R.I.P.s

[Low D]

The stolen children killed in Canada's residential school system, an attempt at forced integration aimed at destroying our Indigenous cultures & communities (ie: the crime of genocide). Run by churches on behalf of the government for most of their 160 years, the last one only finally closed in 1997. Never forgotten, these graves were never "lost", they were a dark open secret that many Canadians are only now learning about. The current "official" tally is over 4,000, but some estimates range as high as 20,000. Recent use of ground-penetrating radar has led to the announcement of the identification of unmarked graves:

215 in Kamloops, BC
104 in Brandon, Manitoba
35 at The Mission at Muskowekwan, Saskatchewan
751 at Cowesses First Nation, Saskatchewan
182 at Ktunaxa Nation, Cranbrook, BC
160 at the site of the Kuper Island Residential School, on the territory the Penelakut First Nation.

These announcements are going to keep coming, for years, and it's been brutal over the last seven weeks watching the Indigenous community around me reel with each announcement. I can't even imagine the trauma people are dealing with right now. I can only hope healing comes next*, and the real public reckoning** with our past that Canadians SHOULD have been having since the Truth & Reconciliation Commission in 2008-2015, but that happened under a terrible conservative government that had no interest in grappling with the process or the findings. They actually denied funding to search for these bodies at the time.

* The healing would be helped along if the Catholic church ponied up the $25 million they promised for the purpose, having only ever come up with $4 million, meanwhile spending hundreds of million on construction and renovation of their properties in the years since this promise.

** So far this reckoning has mostly been taking the form of Indigenous & supporters tearing down some statues, and unknown persons burning churches. There has been some outrage about this, but fuck it - you came for their CHILDREN, you should thank your lucky stars they are only coming for "our" statues and some empty buildings.

[Low D]

Anyone interested in learning more can watch this video, featuring a member of our community here sharing her experiences at the Kuper Island Residential "School"
https://youtu.be/iJhcWuUxMfQ

[Low D]

American Fiddler Byron Berline. He won the National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest Championship in Weiser, Idaho, in 1965, 1967 and 1970, played in Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys, The Dillards, and The Flying Burrito Brothers, among others.

At the end of the day (or his day, at least), he's probably best known for playing on The Rolling Stones' "Country Tonk", because they're so damn big even an appearance on an obscure album track or b-side is probably bigger than the rest of your career combined. I think Let It Bleed did alright?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHiaxet1y0U

Or maybe you know him from his cameo on Star Trek TNG S01E06 "Where no one has gone before". Byron said they didn't even audition his playing, figures he got the role because he was tall and thin so fit their crew jump suits well.

Byron was 77.

[Frances]

Biz Markie.

Damn, damn, damn...

[Low D]

Gloria Richardson, American civil rights activist best known as the leader of the Cambridge movement and for delivering epic side eye to the National Guard & their bayonets, has died at age 99.

[Low D]

Jazz drumming legend Jerry Granelli, the last surviving member of the Vince Guaraldi Trio made famous by their soundtrack for the 1965 film "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Granelli's drumming career spanned more than 60 years and resulted in more than 30 albums of his own/leading his own band, as well as playing with pretty much everybody as a session musician, including the Grateful Dead, Lou Rawls, Mose Allison, Sly Stone and, of course, Vince Guaraldi. A sought-after teacher, he was working until days before his death at the age of 80 at his long-time home in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

[Low D]

Long time bass player for ZZ Top* Dusty Hill, 72. Thus ends the longest stable line up in Rock (1970-2021). That torch has now passed to Rush (1974-2018) but about to be eclipsed by u2 (1978 - we can hope can't we?)

* (Also Hank Hill's cousin)

[Low D]

Jamaican/Canadian reggae icon Jo Jo Bennett, 81. A graduate of the Alpha Boys School music program in Jamaica, Bennett was a trumpet & flugelhorn player, songwriter & arranger who not only played with many of the greats, but also co-founded the Satellite Music School in Toronto in the early 1980s, a pay-what-you-can affair. Shortly after, he co-founded long-running reggae band The Satellites.

[Low D]

Folkabilly songstress Nanci Griffith, 68. Best remembered by me for "It's a Hard Life"
https://youtu.be/a9lUG4gBjSE

[firehazard]

Folkabilly songstress Nanci Griffith, 68. Best remembered by me for "It's a Hard Life"
https://youtu.be/a9lUG4gBjSE

Sad news. We saw her a few times at the Cambridge Folk Festival, she was a fairly regular visitor there. RIP

https://youtu.be/rkwb-3lokAs

[Low D]

Don Everly, 84, joining younger brother Phil who passed in 2014 at the age of 74. One hopes they are now finally speaking again.

[DzM]

Don Everly, 84, joining younger brother Phil who passed in 2014 at the age of 74. One hopes they are now finally speaking again.

I thought Phil was the elder. Abe was the more conservative of the two. After his passing I understand Don felt more free to voice his more liberal views and endorsed Hillary Clinton for pres.

[Low D]

I thought Phil was the elder. Abe was the more conservative of the two. After his passing I understand Don felt more free to voice his more liberal views and endorsed Hillary Clinton for pres.

Looks like you're right:
https://www.kmaland.com/news/don-everly ... 4baee.html

"Phil and I were so different," he said. "He was a Republican, and I've been a Democrat all my life. He was a Republican all his life, so we could never really get together and endorse anybody, because we were on two different sides of everything. So now that he's no longer with us, I can come out and say what I feel."

Don was two years the elder. I didn't know about their individual politics, but I tended to think of Phil as the "cooler" one, probably because he did some slightly hipper music solo than Don, who mostly played it safe.

Warren Zevon was their live band leader for a few years in the 70s (and also worked with Phil solo) and wrote about having been warned that they didn't speak and to tread lightly, but that he broke the chill between them and had them talking. Took my dad to see them for his birthday in... 1991? Albert Lee was band leader and they didn't seem overly chummy so maybe Albert doesn't have Warren's famous social skills.

[Robert Lyons]

I saw the Everly Brothers quite a few times when they reformed in the mid eighties.I loved their harmonies and i loved them playing all the hits,i just wished they could have played more of their lesser known stuff. Mind you,the lesser known stuff sold Jack Shit! That said the Roots album is my favourite .Albert Lee,great guitarist, he never really let rip the way he did when performing as a member of Emmylou's Hot Band.RIP Don.

[DzM]

Charlie Watts, 80. I have nothing clever to say here.